ALTRINCHAM Kersal kicked off the new North One West season in style with a 33-31 win at Firwood Waterloo.

Kersal began slowly and it allowed the hosts to edge ahead 15 minutes in.

But they responded with a try in the corner from ex-Waterloo man Joe Kelly.

The home side's forwards notched a score to edge them back in front at 12-7 but James Coulson fed brother John to cross the whitewash in the corner to make it 14-12 to Kersal at the break.

In an end-to-end game, Waterloo then scored another try before Richardson levelled it up again.

It looked like the hosts would go on to take control after two tries in quick succession made the score 31-19 with 13 minutes to go.

But tries from Matt Moss, forcing an error from the Waterloo winger presenting him with an easy touch down, and from Kersal’s young blindside flanker Micah Dyos, turned the game around and won it for the visitors.

The second XI also won on the road, 39-24 against Winnington Park.

The new back-row combination of Seb Ellis, Jack Spiers and Aaron Loftus proved key in securing pressure and field position, setting platforms for attacking play from both forwards and backs.

Jack Snoddy started the season in try-scoring fashion, making some fantastic half-pitch runs side-stepping around countless Winnington Park defenders to work his way to an eventual hat-trick.

Other scores came from Tom Morris, Matt Hassard and Loftus, with Morris kicking three conversions and a penalty.

The thirds suffered an 81-12 home loss against Ashton-on-Mersey firsts but the Under-17 Colts beat Stoke-on-Trent u17s On 20 minutes Kersal won a line-out 10 metres from the Stoke line, following an excellent penalty kick to touch from Tom Gill.

Luke Daldry took a good, clean catch setting up a driving maul which took the pack over for Harry Backhouse to score.

Stoke responded within five minutes and a successful conversion made it 7-5 to them at the break.

In the second half, Backhouse scored a second try before the opposition responded to retake the lead.

Kersal maintained their focus, scoring a tremendous team try after 61 minutes which Tom Gill finished off after a good run from Jay Thompson.

Gill then bagged his second, racing over from 20 metres to seal victory.