Cleckheaton let Sandal get off to a good start and despite mounting a decent response and playing some good rugby at times, they could not pull back the deficit. In the end it was two tries a-piece but Sandal 's Gregg Wood converted both of his team's and added a drop goal to ultimately make the difference in the scores by the final whistle.

An early penalty in front of Cleckheaton's sticks gave Sandal a 3 - 0 lead and then a dummy from No.8, Steve Graham, allowed him to go through a gap to extend the advantage to ten points with as many minutes gone in the game. Cleckheaton were slightly shell-shocked but fought their way back into the contest and when Matt Piper put Josh Hall into space, the winger squeezed in at the corner and Cleckheaton were on the board. The conversion from the touchline narrowly missed. Sandal pressed Cleckheaton’s line after the ball was spilled from the re-start but after a number of phases attempting to crash through, stand-off Wood, in acres of space, slotted a drop goal.

Cleckheaton countered with a Neil Chivers penalty but then almost pressed the self-destructed button when Ben Thrower and Ryan Piercy were both sent to the sin bin for technical offences within seven minutes of each other. The remaining team defended manfully to keep Sandal out but could not stem the tide and eventually Sandal added another 7 points with a try from Simon Frewin. With minutes left in the half Neil Chivers added another penalty goal for Cleckheaton to bring the half time score 20-11 to Sandal.

The second half was very closely contested with Cleckheaton looking the better side and having extended spells on Sandal's whitewash but handling errors thwarted their efforts. Wood added a second penalty goal for the Wakefield men but with 5 minutes to go Josh Hall went in for his second, again in the corner, to reduce the deficit to 7 points and put Cleckheaton in range of a losing bonus point. The final couple of minutes were a tense affair. Cleckheaton caught and set the ball well, before Piper and Hall combined again up the right flank but after making good yards, a chip over the opposition winger was fielded comfortably by Sandal's fullback and after two more phases, with Sandals bench bellowing instructions to just get the ball off the field, Wood grubbered sideways into touch and the referee signaled full time.

This is the 3rd home game that Cleckheaton have let narrowly slip away from them and like Lymm on the opening day and Ilkley two weeks ago, the team would be confident that if they could rewind time and play the 80 minutes again, they would get the win. Unfortunately that is never possible and whilst they now only have 2 wins from 6 games, the story could be have been so much different. The side is good enough to compete with the best in the league but needs to eradicate the concession of penalties and stick to the game plan when under pressure. Cleckheaton have two games in the next 3 weeks, with a trip to Doncaster Phoenix on Saturday and then Kendal at home on Oct 29th. They will definitely be targeting at least 8 points, which will lift them through the table.

The Kestrels travelled to Selby after Sheffield Tigers had no front row to fulfill the 2nd Team Mertit League fixture. The reserve team battled hard and 2 tries for Ronan Evans and one each for Keiron Downs and Lewis Beasty earned them a 22-18 victory to extend their winning streak.