Douglas got 2024 underway with a home win against Lancaster’s Vale of Lune winning 27-13 at a sunny Port-e-Chee on Saturday.

Defeats for Winnington Park, Altrincham Kersal and Liverpool St Helens elsewhere in the table mean that Douglas gained two places and with an away trip to eighth place Whitchurch this coming Saturday, they could easily bag another.

It wasn’t such a positive start for Vagabonds as they were downed 30-19 at home to Ellesmere Port.

A try, conversion and penalty from Port’s left wing Ryan Turner put the visitors 10-0 in front at Ballafletcher early on.

Ben Simcox added another and Vagas trailed 15-0 after quarter of an hour. Mitch Wells crashed one over for Vagas but Turner’s second plus a score from Jack Radcliffe saw Port 25-5 in front at the break.

Turner raced in to complete his hat trick early in the second half to leave Vagas trailing by 25 points.

Skipper Matt Rockwell rallied his troops and with 20 minutes remaining Cal Donnell smashed over from close range to narrow the gap. Cam Findlay converted.

Seven minutes later Dan Bonwick powered over from close range and with Findlay’s conversion Vagas had a sniff of two bonus points for a try or even a win with two tries.

In the final minutes, however, Ellesmere Port held firm to claim maximum points.

Results:  

Regional Two North West

Douglas 27-13 Vale of Lune

Counties Four ADM Lancashire/Cheshire

Vagabonds 19-30 Ellesmere Port

Ravenscroft Manx Shield

Western Vikings p-p Ramsey

PDMS Southern Nomads p-p IOM Barbarians