A warm welcome from the new committee that are now running the Tigers club was in sharp contrast to the murky weather outside at Door Moor on the edge of the Peak District National Park, where the Sheffield team are based. The mist had descended on the pitch in the early morning and had barely lifted by the time kick off arrived, with visibility down to not much more than the length of the field. Cleckheaton never really settled into this game and only rarely got into top gear, with 3 sin bins not helping the cause. The Tigers on the other hand put the hammer down a number of times and accelerated up the pitch, ultimately running away with the match.

The Tigers wasted no time in pouncing on Cleckheaton, with a try in less than 5 minutes following a fast paced break up Cleckheaton’s left. Kelly got the touchdown and Outram added the extras. Cleckheaton’s start went from bad to worse within a few minutes when Richard Piper lifted his opponents leg in the tackle and dropped him to the floor, the referee produced a yellow card for the ‘tip tackle’ and the Moorenders were reduced to 14 men. Cleckheaton opted to kick down field a little too much and the ball often landed directly in the arms of Sheffield’s best player and man of the match, Peter Swatkins. On one such occasion the former Rotherham Titans fullback gathered the ball at pace and proceeded to step through Cleckheaton’s chasers for a well taken try that doubled their lead. Richard Piper re-took the field and injected much needed go-forward into the pack, who then piled the pressure on Tigers’ line. Despite their best efforts they could not deny Cleckheaton and Richard Piper drove over for a try. Ross Hayden added the conversion.

The match looked to have found some balance with Cleckheaton’s forwards just seeming to get on top of their opponents, though the line-out wasn’t functioning with its normal efficiency. Sheffield’s backs however, had pace to burn and always looked dangerous, even from within their own half. This point was proven on the half hour mark as another flowing move following a kick reception resulted in a try for Destounis. The visitors ended the half on a strong note with the pack camped on Tigers’ line and Jack Bickerdike directing runners into the home side’s defence time and time again. Cleckheaton could not get through but on the stroke of half time were awarded a penalty under the sticks and Hayden duly obliged to give a score of 19-10 at the interval.

The second half started in the much the same way as the first for Cleckheaton with an early score for Tigers, following a kick that went straight to Swatkins. The fullback broke through and prop forward Bennett finished off the move to guarantee Tigers a bonus point. To continue the similarity with the first half, Chris Piper was sent to the sin bin a few minutes later for a technical offence at the ruck. Despite the man down, Cleckheaton defended manfully throwing themselves hard in to every tackle. Unfortunately the desire to put in big hits boiled over and Callum Thompson was also sent to the bin for crashing into a Sheffield player a second or two after he had passed the ball. With Cleckheaton down to 13 men for some time, Sheffield took advantage and speedy winger Pickard went in for Tigers’ fifth try to bring the score to 31-10. With the game seemingly over and the fog closing in, the last 10 minutes of the game could have fizzled into nothing. Cleckheaton however battled hard to claw back some pride and were fixed on the Tigers line for the vast majority of that time. Credit to Sheffield’s defence for not conceding a try and to sum up Cleck’s afternoon, Tigers regained possession a metre from their line as the clock ticked onto 80 minutes but with blistering pace, went the full length of the field for Pickard to get his second.

This was not a good day at the office for Cleckheaton, with line-out, defence and kicking game all, much like the weather at Dore Moor, not as bright as it could have been. Nonetheless Cleckheaton have 4 games before Christmas and are very capable of winning all of them if they quickly put this game behind them and focus and moving onwards and upwards, when we welcome Billingham back to Moorend on Saturday.