THE Caldy faithful heaved a huge sigh of relief at Paton Field last Saturday as visiting Luctonians missed a last-kick penalty whch would have created the upset of the season to date.

As it was the 15-15 finish was a major, major surprise although few could have begrudged the visitors their draw points.

They arrived on the Wirral with just one victory to their credit and adrift in bottom place in National Three North.

Then to make matters worse they had to play just over half the game with fourteen men after their back-row forward Dan Smith was red carded for an alleged head butt which thankfully did not appear to have any repercussions for any home player.

Caldy secured an early try via Neil Dowridge with Jack Lavin converting and the majority of those present waited for the flood gates to open.

Luctonians however defended for their lives when they had to and took three penalty chances via Louis Silver to lead 9-7 after 35 minutes.

Then followed the red card and the Caldy forwards drove over for a second Dowridge try in added first-half time giving them a 12-9 advantage.

Caldy at the time were a man short themselves with Lavin having been yellow carded.

His return to the fray gave them the numerical advantage but amazingly Luctonians after missing one penalty landed a brace via Silver to lead again on the hour mark.

Some more heroic rearguard action by Luctonians somehow kept Caldy out before sub Ben Elliott popped over a drop goal in added time to make it 15-15.

Then came the last kick drama and fortune favoured Caldy as Silver pulled his effort from 35 metres wide.

Luctonians remain bottom of the table despite this inspirational performance.

Caldy who strangley did not produce their true potential on the day are in third place six points behind Sedgley Park and nine adrift of Cheshire rivals Macclesfield.

Birkenhead Park put up a dogged display at the Upper Park to beat Billingham 17-10 in National Three North.

Three penalties by Dave Hall plus a try by Matt Walls after the visitors failed to field an up and under kick by Hall made it 14-0 at the half way stage.

But Billingham and especially winger Adam Rudwan looked a dangerous outfit. Rudwan crossed twice with a Hall penalty in between.

It set up an exciting, nailbiting end to end last fifteen minutes which saw defences excel to keep the score unchanged.

Wirral in the same division finished 10-5 to the good against visiting Ilkley in another very hard fought affair.

Ilkley had the first say with an uncoverted try but Wirral hit back with a Dan Harvey penalty and before the break the same player added the goal following a touch down by Matt Loon.

There was no further scoring and Wirral find themselves fourth in the division.

New Brighton although not at their best edged the verdict 19-18 against Collegiate at Hartsfield in South Lancashire / Cheshire One but there were defeats for Anselmians 22-35 at Sefton and Hoylake 5-46 at home to Northwich.

Ellesmere Port went away 24-5 winners from Oldershaw in Merseyside West. Wallasey lost 5-46 agaimst Northwich and Port Sunlight 13-22 at home to Birchfield.

Prenton did not play against St Edwards and Oxton Parkonians were without a fixture.

The leading Wirral clubs are all on the road this Saturday..

Caldy head for Sandal, Birkenhead Park for Ilkley and Wirral for Sheffield.

Other fixtures include New Brighton at LSH, Hoylake at West Park, Anselmians at Wigan, Prenton at Birchfield, Ellesmere Port v Oxton Parkonians, Oldershaw at Liverpool University and Wallasey v Southport.