Rugby Union Scene with ANDREW STRATTON

NEW Brighton skipper Kevin Brookman proudly received the Tetley's Bitter County Championship Cup at Twickenham on Saturday, after guiding Cheshire to a 21-14 victory over Cornwall.

It was Cheshire's first ever Twickenham outing and it was their first championship since 1961. Brookman had several New Brighton colleagues in his squad and Cheshire always seemed to have the edge, although Cornwall had most of the 35,250 following.

Nick Briers and Mike Blood scored Cheshire tries, Alex Guest landed a drop goal and Steve Swindells two penalties and a conversion.

Birkenhead Park defended badly against Ruthin and lost 17-46. They did earn tries by Chris Wainwright, John Forster and Peter Blaylock, with Jimmy Gray managing one goal.

Wallasey plan a special celebration on Saturday and want members and players, past and present to join in. They clinched promotion from South Lancashire/Cheshire League Division Two with a 48-7 win at Parkonians and will take the title provided they avoid defeat at home to Sefton in their last game.

Seven tries at Holm Lane were credited to Ian Booth, Colin Kirby, Gareth Jones, Mark Trevitt, Steve Thompson, Stu Adamson and Neil Francis. Kevin Parker goaled five times and kicked a penalty.

Paul Browne converted a Mark Hillan try for the losers.

Hoylake had no joy in Division Three, losing 16-49 to Douglas. Alan Robinson and Ben Flint went over and Max Williams targeted two penalties.

In club games, Port Sunlight lost 10-31 at Sefton, but Caldy won 55-24 at Ormskirk. Chris McGrath kicked a penalty and converted an Adrian Spence try for Sunlight.

Rich Mahoney, Marc Harris and Richard Querrelle had two tries each for Caldy, with singles for Andy White, Alistair McLaughlin and Simon Eve. Richard Farrall landed five conversions.

Prenton booked their place in the final of the Cheshire Plate on May 3, with a 60-0 success at Parkonians, who were playing their second match in 24 hours. Craig Elkerton and Mark Giggs gained a brace of tries each, with Andy Gayle, Pete Collins, Lee Roberts, Steve Wallace, Steve Crompton and John Burgess also registering. Giggs added five goals.

Altrincham Kersal, and not Wirral, are the other finalists, the former edging the verdict 17-15 in the other semi-final. Simon Hignett kicked five penalties for the losers.

Other Saturday games include Birkenhead Park v Wilmslow; West Park v Oldershaw; Caldy v Northwich; Wirral v Eagle; Marple v Parkonians; Helsby v Hoylake; Douglas v Prenton and Shell Stanlow v Port Sunlight.

The South Liverpool v Anselmians clash is a doubtful starter.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.