Cleckheaton 29 – 33 Bridlington

Cleckheaton entertained Bridlington at a windswept Moorend on Saturday hoping once again to overturn a narrow defeat in the reverse fixture in September. A family medical emergency on Saturday morning made Mike Swetman the only change from last week’s Team. Mikey Hayward moved into the centre and Ben Dearing started on the wing as a result.

Cleckheaton went behind from the first scrum of the game. Bridlington attacked down the left and winger Max Towse ran in unopposed after some very indifferent attempts at tackling, a problem which would persist for most of the game. Morrison added the conversion to give Brid a 7-0 lead. Cleck made amends after 10 minutes when a superb rolling maul made 30 metres downfield and when Heeley interfered the Bridlington flanker was sent to the sin bin. After a quick penalty and several phases Josh Plunkett crossed for a try which Dale Breakwell improved to level the scores. Breakwell then added a penalty goal 10 minutes later and Cleck took the lead 10-7.

The lead was short lived as just 4 minutes later Morrison was allowed to walk through a gap in the right side of Cleckheaton’s absent defence to score a soft try, which the same player converted to put Scarborough back ahead. Jack Seddon was sent to the bin on 30 minutes to put Cleck under more pressure but they held out in part due to Bridlington butchering some clear opportunities when they had the numerical advantage. In fact, the next score came as half time approached, Breakwell put a smart grubber kick behind the line and Danny Booth was on the spot for his 7th try for the club. Breakwell added the goal and at half time Cleck lead 17-14.

The second half began and Bridlington had the lions share of possession without looking to add to the points tally. On 50 minutes, Breakwell fell short with an ambitious penalty from 45 metres and Bridlington cleared to half way, a quick throw in by Matt Piper set up a sweeping counter attack and a number of phases later, Joey Carley powered over the line for an unconverted try to extend the lead to 22-14.

At two scores ahead, Cleckheaton seemingly had the game in their hands at this point but inexplicably everyone ball watched as Bridlington restarted. The old adage is never let a rugby ball bounce and this was a case in point as an easily catchable ball was left to hit the ground and bounce into the hands of a Bridlington player, with centre Daniel Vannet, scoring a few seconds later. Morrison converted to put 1 point in it. James Wilson was dispatched to the bin and Bridlington took full advantage of the full backs absence by running in 2 tries in 7 minutes to take the game by the scruff of the neck, as Cleckheaton’s tackling was again a cause for concern. Bridlington converted one of the two tries and suddenly had an 11 point lead going into the final minutes at 22-33.

Cleckheaton then decided to start playing and finally got some real shape. On 78 minutes, Ben Dearing went in and Breakwell converted into the wind, assisted by both post and crossbar to make the score 29-33 and land Cleckheaton both a try scoring and a losing bonus point. Cleck kept applying pressure on the line with time almost up and Brid lost two men to the sin bin in their desperation to keep the Moorenders out. With the final play of the game, Cleckheaton replacement Ben Etchells looked to have got the ball down over the line but referee Gavin Jones deemed it was held up and the whistle blew for full time. There were some muted mutterings at the end that Cleckheaton had been denied victory but if the try had been given it would have robbed Bridlington, who turned up with more desire and more application than Cleckheaton, and deserved their victory on the day.

Cleckheaton need to tighten up their defence in open play with a tough encounter expected next week away at Huddersfield YMCA who are currently sat in 2nd place in North East 1 with Cleckheaton remaining in 10th place.