THE rescheduled derby between Northwich Rugby Club and Winnington Park at Moss Farm takes place on Saturday.
Previous attempts to play the fixture fell foul to the weather but Northwich Rugby Club are hoping for more favourable conditions this weekend.
Since the original fixture was postponed last month, Northwich have climbed off the bottom of Regional 2 North West and above the Burrows Hill outfit.
Numerous guests from both clubs will be attending the pre-match meal including local MP Andrew Cooper, Northwich Mayor Cllr Kate Cernik, former captains Colin Naylor, Mike Naylor, Ricky Dodd, Tim Wilding and Jonathon Simpson, who was captain of Northwich RUFC when they lifted the EDF Cup at Twickenham.
Kick off is at 2.15 pm and admission is free to all members of the community who wish to watch.
Northwich will be attempting to complete the double over Winnington Park, who will be hoping to avenge the defeat at Burrows Hill earlier in the season.
Park go into the contest on the back of a 24-21 home defeat to Vale of Lune on Saturday when they ran out of time to complete a second-half recovery.
Northwich were also narrowly beaten at the weekend, 16-12 at home to Isle of Man side Douglas.
For those who braved the poor weather at Moss Farm, they were treated to a fiercely fought battle.
The first 20 minutes saw both sides going toe-to-toe.
The visitors drew first blood when, following a good build up, they scored a converted try which proved to be the only score of the half.
Despite the lack of scoring this was an intriguing contest with both sides trying desperately to break the resilient defences.
Northwich did spend lots of time attacking the Doulas line but were thwarted at every charge and impatience seeming to get the better of them.
The second half resumed with Douglas on the attack.
They were rewarded on the 45th minute with a penalty for a high tackle.
The response from Northwich was almost immediate as they mounted an attack of their own.
Following a period of good possession a penalty was quickly taken by Zac Richardson who scored a try for Harry Naylor to convert.
At this point the initiative seemed to swing in favour of the home side and with 20 minutes remaining a good build up was completed when a long pass found Toby Moss in space.
Moss showed great pace to score in the corner for a try which went unconverted.
During the following 10 minutes Northwich had two opportunities to extend their lead through a couple of penalty kicks that were uncharacteristically off target.
At the other end the visitors kicked two penalties to regain the lead that Northwich could not claw back.
