BOWDON RUFC youngsters enjoyed cup success when both the under-15s and u16s came out on top.

The u15s beat the Isle of Man’s Western Vikings RFC 15-5 in the Cheshire Cup, while the u16s saw off Winnington Park 17-8 in the first round of the U16s Cup.

In the u15s, Bowdon, led from the front by Henri McGuire at flanker, started brightly with a display of tightly-controlled and dominant forward play.

Sustained pressure forced Vikings to concede a penalty which Bowdon kicked to the corner and from the resulting line-out, they steamrollered over the whitewash with a well-executed rolling maul, McGuire touching down.

Slick passing from Western Vikings with powerful running from their wingers threatened a counter-attack, but fierce tackling in Bowdon’s midfield drove them back and the line held firm.

Bowdon’s pack cranked up the intensity again with quickly recycled ball from a number of phases, with, ultimately, Jamie Ryan crashing through a crowd of players to dot down.

Just before half time, another series of drives by the impressive Bowdon pack created space for Oli Murphy to bamboozle the defence with a dummy pass and scamper over to score.

Bowdon were reinforced at half time by fresh “finishers” from the bench who immediately had to repel an onslaught from the Vikings.

A yellow card reduced Bowdon to 14 men, but outstanding, selfless defence kept their try line intact until, in the dying minutes, a Vikings’ move saw their winger slice through on the flank and finish strongly for a well-earned consolation try.

In the u16s' cup clash, Winnington Park were the visitors to Clay Lane and they were first on the scoreboard with a long-range penalty for Bowdon being ahead of their kicker.

This was followed by a good forwards try from Bowdon who, from continued pressure, saw Hindle score one of his brace of tries on the day.

Fine positional kicking from Wardle saw Bowdon capitalise on field position with the back row of Ronan, Legg, and Day, and in the second half Haigh secured the turnover through dogged tackling and rucking.

A second forwards try secured by Hindle again pushed Bowdon's lead to 10 points, however Winnington thoroughly deserved their try which was secured by sloppy play and missed tackles.

Both sides had good possession during the game, however breaking runs from the middle line of Whitmarsh and Timmins, backed up by the wingers of Masom, Passey and Lynott, helped Bowdon break the gain line.

The forwards were exceptional, never giving a step and defending well against a very physical Winnington side. Worthy mentions got to Reed, Ancell, Harrison, Oakes, Istephan and Tattersall who all assisted in the match-winning try by Mills, coming on as the ultimate finisher and scoring a try which was converted by Wardle.