York 17 - 27 Cleckheaton Kestrels

Cleckheaton travelled to York on Saturday to play a fixture that was scheduled for the 17th December but with both teams having no game in the fixture book this league encounter was brought forward. This enabled Craig Blackburn to play as he usually has shopping to do the week before xmas.

The game started and finished in pouring rain which hindered both sides attempts to play a flowing style game, although Cleck benefitted by making fewer mistakes.

York took the lead in the 10th minute following an infringement at the ruck and their Stand-off converted a penalty to put them 3-0 up. This was levelled 5 mins later when Robin Bennet scored in a similar way from in front of the posts.

The game continued with both sides making handling mistakes until the 35th minute when Bob Depledge broke from inside his own half, found Gareth Lamb who in turn found Robin Bennet 10 metres out. The flanker threw an outrageous dummy to go in under the posts, converting his own score to give the Kestrels a 10-3 lead.

As half time approached it looked like the score would remain the same but a finely placed kick through by Tom Crewe found 17 year old Lewis Beasty out wide, he dropped on the ball and fed brother Matt, who made ground before been tackled into touch. From the resultant line Matt Beasty stole the ball and set up a maul, Ben Thrower and Nathan Clayton took the ball forward before working it to the back for Liam Goldthorpe to go over for a try. Bennet hit the crossbar with his attempted conversion and at half time the scoreboard read 15-3 to the Kestrels.

The 2nd period started with a quick score straight from the kick off, Thrower collecting the ball and evading a couple of defenders before finding Crewe. The centre made good ground before passing to Lewis Beasty, who promoted the ball further and popped a pass from the floor for Tom Brook to collect another Cleckheaton try. Bennet hit the post with his conversion attempt.

Cleck then not for the first time this year went to sleep and York piled on the pressure but were kept out with some resolute defence. That was until the hour mark when their speedy winger chipped over gathered and scored through the middle of the park.

Cleck struggled clearing their lines at times having no recognised kicker, a lot of pressure was taken off by the quick thinking of captain Mark Fletcher who continually made ground with some quick tap penalties.

Another 17 year old, Colts Captain Kieran Downes, was introduced after 60 minutes to play his first game of open age rugby.

The highlight of the game was Clecks final score when from deep inside their own 22, Fletcher broke feeding Depledge who made ground to half way before releasing Craig Blackburn who took the ball into York's 22 before playing an inside ball to Brook who stepped inside and put Lamb in for the try of the day. Bennet converted.

York replied in the dying minutes to make the final score 27-17 to the Kestrels.

A mention must also go to Tom Holmes who performed well in an unaccustomed position of 2nd row. Prop Liam Goldthorpe put in a man of the match performance with some hard graft up the middle.