A nerve-wracking finale to this game saw Lancashire come from behind to beat Cheshire in atrocious conditions at Park Lane.
Cheshire started the brighter, adapting to conditions by keeping possession, and winning turnover ball.
Richard Vasey missed an early chance to score from a long-distance penalty attempt, but his side soon had Lancashire under the cosh.
The Cheshire pack worked well as a unit, and in a period where they kept the pressure on the Lancashire line, Gareth Rawlings was yellow-carded.
Successive scrums at that point eventually led to the Lancashire pack succumbing, and referee Karl Kirkpatrick awarded the visitors a penalty try on 21 minutes. Vasey converted, before adding a penalty soon after, for a 10-0 lead.
Chris Johnson’s vision and kicking from hand, gave his team the platform to start working their way back in to the game, and from a driving maul, Rawlings made up for his earlier misdemeanour by carrying the ball over for Lancashire’s first try of the afternoon on 31 minutes.
Johnson converted, but Vasey had the last laugh of the first period, kicking an excellent drop goal from the 22 metre line bang on half-time.
The rain stopped during the break, which was some relief, but still making handling treacherous.
Vasey kicked two penalties to stretch the lead further, but Johnson was able to find his aim with two of his own around the hour mark.
At this point, news was coming through of Yorkshire’s lead at Tynedale, and with the Tykes having earned a try-scoring bonus, Mark Nelson and his coaching team knew that their side would have to take at least a losing bonus point if they were to make the final.
With ten minutes to play, and with that losing bonus point in sight, Cheshire’s replacement scrum-half, Alec Smith was sin-binned for an offence as Lancashire were on the ascendancy near the visitors’ line.
The extra man allowed Adam Lewis the space to sprint over for a try, and with Johnson kicking the conversion from the touchline, Lancashire were in the lead, by 20-19.
Johnson’s aim from hand was true in the final minutes, seeking out Warren Spragg on the opposite wing with a cross-kick, which the winger dribbled to the in-goal, and had just enough stretch in his right arm to touch the ball down before Cheshire’s last man could reach it.
Lancashire head coach Mark Nelson said after the game: “I said right from the start, that there were four teams who were very competitive, and that proved to be the case, right to the wire. Cheshire pushed and pushed and pushed, and we had to dig really deep into our resources.
“Massive credit to the players, they came through, and that was a torrid, torrid game. They showed great resilience to get to the final, we did that the hard way.
“We kept focus against a very resilient and very game Cheshire team who were really pumped up for this. We had to dig deep, we had the man down with Gaz Rawlings off and they capitalised on that.
“When they had their sin-binning in the last ten minutes, that really just turned the tide in our favour.
“The test of any team is when you have to draw things out against really tough sides, and go right to the wire, that shows the character of a side. It was a full team effort, everybody contributed to that. The weather restricted the back play".
On hearing that Cornwall were to face his team next week, Nelson said: “That sets up a humdinger. It would have been very difficult after everything we have put in, to go out the competition here, but the lads have dug deep, and tee'd up an experience they won’t forget at Twickenham next week, so we’re really looking forward to that”.
The win takes Lancashire to the Bill Beaumont Cup final at Twickenham on Sunday 1 June, in a repeat of last year’s final, to face Cornwall.
Scorers -
Lancashire
Tries: Rawlings 31, Lewis 76, Spragg 79
Conversions: Johnson 31 76
Penalties: Johnson 59, 68
Cheshire
Tries: Penalty 21
Conversions: Vasey 21
Penalties: Vasey 25 46 50
Drop Goal: Vasey 40
Lancashire: Sean Taylor (Preston Grasshoppers), Warren Spragg (Fylde), Chris Briers (Fylde), Matt Riley (Sedgley Park), Phil Baines (Preston Grasshoppers), Chris Johnson (Captain) (Fylde), Ryan De La Harpe (Fylde); Dan Birchall (Fylde), Mark Rylance (Fylde), Adam Lewis (Fylde), Louis McGowan (Sedgley Park), Gareth Gore (Fylde), Gareth Rawlings (Longton), Evan Stewart (Fylde), Matt Lamprey (Sedgley Park)
Replacements used: Simon Griffiths (Fylde), Ben Black (Sedgley Park), David Fairbrother (Fleetwood), Paul Arnold (Fylde), Tom Burtonwood (Fylde), Steve Collins (Sedgley Park)
Replacement unused: Jordan Dorrington (Fylde)