Cleckheaton were always going to be facing a tough encounter when they hosted unbeaten league leaders, Huddersfield, at Moorend last Saturday. Their task was not made any easier by the unavailability of 4 regular players, largely through injury picked up or exacerbated during the previous week’s victory over Firwood Waterloo. Captain, Richard Piper, was amongst those declared unfit and Luke Pearson was given the captain’s armband, which at 20 years old, makes him amongst the youngest to do so.

Cleckheaton opened the scoring with a penalty from Ronan Evans, before Huddersfield’s Tom Owens, who was to prove a handful all afternoon went in for his team’s first try. It was converted by Chris Bell, who after a missing a early penalty attempt went on to establish a 100% success rate with his next 10 efforts. Huddersfield extended their lead through Hinchliffe’s try but Evans added a second penalty for Cleckheaton to bring the score back to 6-14. The eight-point margin did not last long though as Bell added a penalty goal for the visitors before converting a try from Nick Sharpe.

Ryan Piercy was sent to the sin bin with 9 or 10 minutes left in the first period and Huddersfield took advantage when Lewis Workmen was able to squeeze in at the corner for his side’s 4th and bonus point try. Cleckheaton were not done though and battled hard for field position before Evans put James Wilson through a large gap and the fullback and dived under the sticks, Evans added the extras and at the break Huddersfield led 31-13.

The second half proved gloomy for Cleckheaton as a layer of fog descended on Moorend making it difficult to see from one end of the field to the other. Huddersfield were responsible for all the scoring as Cleckheaton battled hard but could not contain the up-tempo game the visitors were playing. Huddersfield added a penalty and another 4 converted tries in the last 40 minutes of the game with Conway getting two and Rhodes and Hoyle getting one each. Bell converted all of them to bring the final score to a one-sided looking 62-13.

Cleckheaton battled hard throughout the game and can be proud of the effort they put in against an opposition determined to bounce straight back into National League 2, from which they came last year. There were some notable hits on the field as the Moorenders tried to keep Huddersfield out, with Brad Marsden and Jack Seddon both causing gasps from the crowd. Mark Chivers picked up the Man of the Match Award for great consistency with his line-out throwing and working tirelessly throughout.

Next week Cleckheaton take a trip to high flying Wirral, who they beat 20-12 in their last encounter in April before two crucial games in the run up to Christmas with Stockport at home on 10th December, followed by Morley away the weekend afterwards.