The Kestrels delivered a ten try demolition of Wharfedale’s Development XV to earn 5 points and keep themselves at the top of The Yorkshire RFU Championship Merit League.

Tom Crewe bagged a hat-trick including Cleckheaton’s first try when he jinked through the defence to go over to the left of the sticks. Jarrad Toulson hit the post with the conversion but made up for it a few minutes later when some slick interpassing between himself and Centre, Gareth Lamb, beat two defenders for Toulson to touch down in the corner. Nathan Clayton was next on the score sheet barging his way over from the back of a ruck a few metres out. Wharfedale kept trying to hit back and were rewarded for their efforts following a charged down kick. Any hopes of a comeback were soon dashed though as Cleckheaton re-asserted their dominance with a try by Adam Stanley, finishing off a break from Lamb and Crewe. None of the first half tries were converted but at the interval Cleckheaton had a healthy 20-5 lead and a four try bonus point under their belts.

Cleckheaton’s forwards started the second half brightly, with Mark Sergeant eager for work and Luke Haigh, Luke Bashforth and Ricky Motlib all making breaks to take the Kestrels up field. With the forwards on the front foot, the Kestrels’ superior backline found themselves plenty of space to exploit and soon breached Wharfedale’s line again with Tom Crewe going in for his second of the afternoon. Wharfedale were not done however and capitalised on dropped ball from the homeside and almost raced to the line, Cleckheaton’s defence scrambled well to keep them out and in the desperation Matt Beasty was adjudged to have tackled someone from an offside position and was sent to the sin bin. Cleckheaton dug deep during the 10 minutes and prevented Wharfedale from scoring.

Soon after being returned to full compliment the Kestrels got the scoreboard ticking over again when Liam Goldthrope added another try from close range. The backs then ran rampant for 5 minutes scoring 3 tries in quick succession. Tom Brooke scored the first after causing the defence problems all afternoon with his strong mazy running style. Tom Crewe completed his hat-trick following good work from Patrick Horrigan before Horrigan capped off his afternoon with a 60m run up the wing, bouncing off 2 or 3 defenders on his way to the whitewash. Jack Seddon completed the scoring 1 minute from the end of the match when he caught a would-be clearance kick and returned it with interest, gliding round the opposition winger for Cleckheaton’s 10th try. Toulson converted four out of the six tries second half tries for a final score of 58 – 5.