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Action from Alnwick v Macclesfield on Saturday. Picture by Steve Miller.

In the November fixture it was his excellent last-ditch tackle on Joe Weddell in the dying seconds which deprived Alnwick of a draw or possible victory and on Saturday he scored the final try allowing Oliver’s conversion to nudge his side home.

Alnwick will no doubt be acutely disappointed that, having earned an 18–12 lead with 15 minutes left of a finely balanced match, they couldn’t quite keep out the third placed promotion contenders until the end. Sadly, it was a rare lapse in their consistently solid tackling which gave Macclesfield an attacking field position from which they ultimately delivered the killer blow.

Once again, a strong and chilly southerly wind was the only downside to otherwise favourable conditions for open rugby and it would inevitably play an influential role in proceedings.

Alnwick had the sun and wind at their backs as Macclesfield kicked off and at an evenly contested scrum in the opening minute, Peter Moralee disrupted his opposite number’s pass. As it went loose, Callum Burn’s hack just beat him into touch but although Macclesfield’s defence of their line-out short of their own 22 held initially, Alnwick gained possession from a disrupted a Macclesfield scrum. Switching play from left to right drew in the defenders before a long pass gave Hutchinson space to run in for a try in the corner and an unexpected 5 – 0 lead in under five minutes with the conversion missed.

Stung by this reverse, Macclesfield’s lively backs linked well with their forwards to attack deep into Alnwick’s territory with any clearing kicks only setting up further probes. Alnwick’s defensive tackling was solid but Macclesfield took advantage of a penalty to switch play to the left and after several powerful drives following a line-out put hooker Moss over to make it 5–5 with the conversion missed.

For the next 15 minutes Alnwick’s defence was being severely tested until a lobbed Macclesfield pass was blown back and chased 40 metres into their 22. Alnwick pressed hard to take advantage of the

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