Cleckheaton 37 York 23

A rampant Cleckheaton put in one of the best team performances of the season to see off the league leaders York at Moorend.
Bradley Marsden returned to the team in the second row , Damian Pearson dropping to the bench with Rika-Rayne and Milborne.
York kicked off with the wind at their backs and looked dangerous with ball in hand in the early going, the first score came with 5 minutes gone when the winger George Davies was worked into space to cross in the right corner, the kick was missed and York led 0-5. Minutes later, Lillicrop was penalised at the breakdown and Hessay kicked the goal to give York the lead 0-8. This seemed to fire up the home team and on 16 minutes following a penalty 10 metres from the York line , Marsden secured good line out possession and the maul rumbled forward, Joey Carley was on the spot for his 1st try of the season, Dale Breakwell added the goal 7-8. York seemed to be getting dragged into midfield and were making some handling errors in the face of powerful tackling by the so called 'soft' Cleckheaton forwards. On 27 minutes, quick thinking by Breakwell saw a crosskick land in the hands of wing Mikey Hayward on his own 10 metre line , a mazy run left a trail green and black shirts in his wake as he recorded his 17th try of the campaign, Breakwell added the goal and Cleckheaton took the lead 14-8.
Just 5 minutes later, some classy play between Depledge and Marshall sent Brad Marsden galloping along the right hand touchline before touching down under the posts for a 1st try of the season, Breakwell added the conversion, 21-8.
York were guilty of coughing up possession and as half time approached, Cleckheaton took control of a rolling maul which went 20 metres before a jubilant Marsden touched down for the bonus point try, Breakwell kept up his 100% record 28-8 at half time.
Game management would be important in the second half and Breakwell slotted a 30 metre drop goal to extend the lead to 31-8.
The next 10 minutes saw both sides probing for openings but defences were on top, York have the territorial advantage , while the immaculate Breakwell cleared the ball downfield away from danger.
Andy Piper was shown the yellow card for an offence at the ruck and when Archie Rika -Rayne came into the front row, replacement Milborne was sacrificed for 10 minutes. York had their best spell scoring 3 quick tries , firstly, Hodgson and then Maud scored after driving mauls on 62 and 65 minutes before a long pass saw the left wing Hodges cross in the corner for their bonus point try, fortunately for Cleckheaton ,Hessay couldn't convert any of the tries and it was an edgy game at 31-23 with 12 minutes to go. Into the last 10 minutes , the cool head of Breakwell slotted 2 penalty goals to settle the game down and while York applied pressure as the clock ran down , the home side ran out winners 37-23 to cut the lead at the top of the table to 6 points , with Driffield losing at Malton and Norton they are now 6 points adrift in 3rd place. A terrific game between 2 combative teams who gave their all on the day. Brad Marsden picked up the Man of the Match award for his two tries ,although Niall Jackson ran him close with a staggering amount of work in the defensive line.
Next week , Cleckheaton travel to Durham , coach departs at 1030am for the kick off at 2.15.