WIRRAL won local bragging rights with an 18-10 victory over Anselmians in front of a big crowd at the Memorial Ground. 

The match was evenly balanced in the first half with Anselmians having the advantage of the wind, but it was Wirral who took the first points following a break in midfield by Mark Williams, which split the Anselmians defence, allowing him to run in from 50m to score under the posts.

Jimmy Annetts converted and duly followed with a penalty which took his points scored for Wirral over the 1,500 mark.

In the rest of the half, Anselmians came back into the game with a try from Sam Gregory duly converted by Dave Morley, with the latter adding a penalty with the last play of the first half to leave the score 10-10 at half time.

In the second half, Wirral used the wind to better effect, but it was not until the 66th minute that the hosts went ahead with a try from Tom Akehurst, after Anselmians had missed an easy penalty to take the lead.

Five minutes later a poor clearance from Anselmians was caught by Ben Brooks and a long pass to Mark Phillips enabled the player to drop kick from 35m to score and put Wirral two scores ahead at 18-10.

Anselmians worked hard to get back into the game but a try was disallowed on the basis that it was not touched down to seal the game.

Wirral now move up to fourth in the league whilst Anselmians remain in the relegation zone.