Beverley 15 - 10 Cleckheaton

Fate has a habit of rewarding those who remain positive despite adversity. Anything that could go wrong went wrong on Saturday against a Beverley side which must have used up all its annual dose of good fortune. A sending off, a charged down clearance, several glaring opportunities spurned and poor decision making. All contributed to a certain degree, but ultimately this Cleckheaton side has to realise that when it has superiority as it had on Saturday, teams have to be punished.

Despite having the lion's share of possession and a big territorial advantage, 14 man Cleck went down to their 4th successive defeat and the 3rd game out of 4 where a losing bonus point has been earned. The match was not short of incident which began as early as the 3rd minute when Cleckheaton appeared to be over in the corner only for an eagle eyed touchjudge(Jonners) to spot a foot in touch

The visitors took a deserved lead in the 10th minute when 18 year old back row Tom Clough intercepted on half way and easily beat the Beverley defence for the first try. Ross Hayden converted. In the 13th minute Ian Archibald had a chance to reduce the arrears for Beverley but his penalty attempt was wide. In the 20th minute and following a period of intense pressure Cleckheaton were awarded a penalty 25 metres out. The decision was made to kick for the corner instead of taking the chance of a kickable penalty. Inevitably possession was lost and Beverley cleared their lines.
In the 33rd minute Cleckheaton were reduced to 14 men when second row Carl Mason was given a straight red card for punching and to add insult to injury as half time beckoned a clearance kick by Cleck fly half Nick Wainwright was charged down and Beverley skipper Dave Worrall regathered and plunged over to reduce the arrears.
The omens were not good for Cleckheaton when 5 minutes into the 2nd half Ian Archibald put Beverley into the lead for the first time with a penalty. The visitors continued to dominate both territory and possession but both marksmen were off target with penalty efforts.
On the hour mark Beverley created daylight between the 2 teams when big Australian centre Jade Gardiner broke through for a try much against the run of play. Archibald converted but Ross Hayden put Cleck back in contention with an excellent long range penalty in the 66th minute.
Despite almost constant lineout possession and a glaring chance to level the scores in the last seconds of the match when a clear 2 man overlap was spurned, Cleckheaton came up short and were left to rue Mason's dismissal and a host of missed opportunities.