Moor were confirmed as league champions after a dour encounter at second-placed Burnley. Both sides had to contend with end-to-end wind and slanting rain on a pitch that increasingly resembled a paddy field. Although these conditions better suited the large Burnley pack, they rarely entered Moor’s 22 in the first half thanks to the elements and a determination to keep the home side under pressure.

Moor opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Ivan Smetana burst through 2 defenders down the blindside touchline before passing inside to Martin Snidal. His diagonal run into the Burnley 22 made space for Felipe Silva to perform a quality swallow dive under the posts, leaving Martin Shelley an easy conversion. A Burnley attack on halfway was to provide Moor with their second try after 20 minutes thanks to a crunching tackle by Phil Thomas, who also hacked on the spilt ball. Caught on the back-foot, the Burnley defence were beaten to the touchdown by the speedy Shelley, whose conversion was just wide. A stalemate then ensued until 5 minutes before halftime when Silva chipped over the defence, caught the ball and set off on a darting run that was eventually snuffed out only a few metres short of the opposition line. Had he scored, it would have made Moor’s task a little easier in the second half when they had to face the elements.

Burnley quickly made their intentions clear from the re-start as they kept the ball in their forwards, hoping to use the sledgehammer rather than the rapier. This tactic worked after 15 minutes when a period of pressure near the Moor line produced a try thanks to a convenient puddle. The remaining 25 minutes witnessed heroic efforts by Moor’s defenders, led by player/coach Keith Young, to beat back Burnley attacks. The final whistle brought great relief to all sodden spectators, over 20 of whom were from Moor, and to the players, most of the latter leaving the field reminiscent of the famous Fran Cotton photograph.

This Saturday, Moor continue the defence of the Lancashire Plate which they won last year, when they face Ormskirk at Green Lane in the semi-final of this season’s competition, k.o. 3:00 pm.