Cleckheaton 31 - 7 Doncaster Phoenix

A great start to the new season saw Cleckheaton 3rds winning against a larger pack.

In the first half of the game Cleck played downhill, with fullback and marathon runner Craig Aspinal opening the scoring with a try after 15 mins. Joff Ward added the extras. Great play and good hands soon brought Cleck's 2nd try when Steve Smith went over on the 20 minute mark. Ward's conversion increasing the score to 14 - 0.

The 3rds extended their lead even further 10 minutes later when Stewart Crawshaw scored under the posts following some excellent passing and Joff Ward made it 3 out of 3 with the boot. On the stroke of half time a missed knock forward by the referee saw Cleck stand still, letting the opposing full back through the gap to score under the posts. The try was converted to make the score 21-7 at the break.

In the second half Cleck's superior passing and inter-play between forwards and backs resulted in further tries for Richard Simpson and Joff Ward. Both were unconverted giving a final score of 31-7.

Hopefully Cleck will have a great season after this promising start and will be able to play 4 teams this coming weekend.