The Kestrels travelled to Horsforth for this friendly against Yarnbury 2nds, a team currently playing in the Yorkshire Merit League above Cleckheaton.

Battle was to take place on the club’s back pitch, as Yarnbury’s 1st XV were also at home and whilst lush with grass the field was very boggy at one end and hosted a strong wind blowing towards the other. This combination of factors resulted in much of the game taking place in one half of the field.

Craig Blackburn, doing the honours for The Kestrels, won the toss and played against the elements for the first 40 minutes. Yarnbury attacked Cleckheaton’s line from the outset, with only stout defence from Gareth Lamb and Blackburn in the centres, preventing a try in the opening exchanges. Some deep kicks from the home side kept the back three of Tom Clapham, Daz Terry and Adam Stanley busy and when Cleckheaton tried to respond with clearance kicks of their own, they found their attempts foiled by the conditions and the ball returned with interest by the Horsforth men. From one such turn around, Yarnbury earned themselves a scrum inside Cleck’s 22 and after the ensuing ruck, produced a crossfield kick which bounced into the arms of the waiting winger for Yarnbury’s opening score. The try was converted to leave Cleckheaton trailing by 7 points.

Cleck started to apply some pressure to Yarnbury from this point on, with scrum half Mark Fletcher disrupting the ball at the back of the homeside’s scrum a number of times. Cleck’s forwards also started to drive hard at the opposition with Chris Piper and Luke Haigh eager to get hands on the ball and the back row trio of Simon Quinn, Nathan Clayton and Aiden Bullen on hand to support. Despite this work and additional contributions from Matt Beasty and Nick Holland, Cleck were unable to get through the opposition line and went further behind following a successful Yarnbury penalty goal.

At half time Cleckheaton trailed 10 - 0 but would now play with the wind at their backs. Coach Gordon Piper demanded more effort from the Kestrels during the team talk and they duly obliged, quickly establishing a presence in Yarnbury’s half of the field. Clean ruck ball, following a period of possession, allowed Fletcher to fire out a pass which eventually found Ricky Motlib running at pace and with a supporting push from Terry, Motlib was able to drive through the opposition defence for his debut try for the club. Toulson added the extras and Cleck were right back in it at 10 - 7.

With a plentiful bench, Cleck looked to make some changes and Davis, Graham, Thrower, Bashforth and Gillan were added to the fray. The fresh legs were able to increase The Kestrels’ growing momentum, disrupting the home side’s set piece and commanding the greater proportion of possession. After more good work from the forwards, with Clayton and Piper going close, the ball was flicked out to Toulson who side stepped his way over the line to put Cleckheaton in front, the conversion increasing the advantage to 14 -10.

With just over 15 minutes left on the clock the Kestrels continued to repel Yarnbury from anywhere near their 22 and the home side did not have a tangible scoring opportunity in the whole of the second half. The referee drew a close to the match without further score and the Kestrels can feel rightly proud of their second half effort.

For an outstanding contribution to try scoring celebrations, Ricky Motlib was awarded this week’s Purple Patch award for the most memorable moment of the match.