West Leeds 15

Ilkley 43

If the Dalesmen had been offered a 28 point victory over West Leeds at the start of the season they would have gladly taken it!

Their gallant opponents had finished fourth in the league and had lifted the prestigious Yorkshire Shield last season. This term they are languishing in relegation trouble.

How fortunes change in a short time. This season has been Ilkley's best for years and promotion is now a real possibility. However, they must spend a further nerve-wracking week before the outcome of the match between promotion rivals North Ribblesdale and Knottingley is known. Rib have to score heavily if they are to pip the Dalesmen to that second place slot.

Rib will be returning disappointed to have lost their Twickenham National cup final to Leos on try count, the match itself finishing 13-13. Still they will no doubt want to salvage something from their season. Fingernails in the Ilkley camp will be somewhat shorter come Saturday!

Ilkley travelled to Leeds determined to get the win and to rack up as big a score as possible. West Leeds put up a gritty fight to turn the tables and bag two desperately needed league points. Six tries, five conversions and a penalty is a fair effort. The pity for Ilkley was leaking those three tries against.

Tony Greig was forced to pull out with his cut knee still troubling him. Matt Newberry came in with Man-of-the-Match Nick Brook dropping into the No 8 slot.

Once again that potent Ilkley scrummaging dominated proceedings up front and was to prevent West Leeds getting possession in vital field positions. It is a credit to their tenacity that, even going backwards, they managed to scramble the ball away much of the time. No 8, that wily old servant of the club Dave Breakwell, can take much of the credit for that. Scrum half Joe Bedford showed that he is a class act. If he had been behind a stronger pack things would surely have been different.

His brother Richard at fly half also had a courageous game under severe pressure.

In a match of such importance nerves take hold and whilst their performance was solid the Ilkley team will be quick to acknowledge it wasn't their best of the season. As always a major factor at this ground is the pitch size.

Being narrow, Ilkley were unable to get their expansive game going and Dan Nulty got few chances to use his speed. The wind also got up during the first period and was to become a telling factor as Ilkley wobbled badly in the first 15 minutes of the second-half.

Having started badly with the kick-off going dead the Dalesmen were immediately on the back foot conceding three penalties before Bedford put the Leeds outfit 3-0 up. It took another five minutes before Ilkley got into gear. In this time referee Mr Verigan was clearly determined to stamp his authority on the game, letting nothing go.

A penalty saw the ball moved swiftly out to Simon Smith who jinked his way over for try number one and a 7-3 lead. Then Anthony Cadman slotted a penalty goal after Andy Hinchliffe was high tackled.

Try number two came after Allan Moffatt and Martin Hemingway combined to make 30 metres to set Nick Bell for a try. That was 17 -3 after 20 minutes.

Smith got the next score after a booming Cadman clearance had taken play from Ilkley's 22 deep into West Leeds' territory. The line-out was stolen and the ball whipped out to Smith. He cut inside, dummied the one defender in his way to bag his second try to take the tally to 24-3.

Then West Leeds found some spirit and were unlucky to have a score disallowed touching down a hair's breadth short. Ilkley came close again after Moffatt and Hinchliffe combined well but a knock-on on the line prevented the score.

At the turn round things looked good for the Dalesmen. Now it was time to dig deep and add the points. West Leeds had a different agenda.

The second-half found a touch of the Ilkley red mist descending. Things just did not go right. Wrong decisions were taken. Kicks were misdirected and instead of playing to strengths they played an uncharacteristic game of chance. The strengthening wind did not help the Ilkley cause.

They allowed the Loiners to get back into the game with a try out wide from wingman Smith to reduce arrears to 24-10.

Then Simon Smith late tackled his opposite number and received the yellow card. Now it was really time to dig in and time and time again the Ilkley scrum saved the day. Finally the ship was steadied as a Leeds' scrum was turned and another disrupted to allow Moffatt to wrest the ball away and bullock over from ten metres to score. That was 31-10.

A pushover try scored from a scrum 15 metres out was next to make it 36-10. From the kick-off the ball was spun out to Smith, who had just returned to the fray after almost 15 minutes in the sin-bin, to charge away and scorch down the left wing to feed Sean Gilbert for him to touch down in the corner.

That completed the scoring for the Dalesmen but they still had time to endure another nervy spell. Andy Pell came on for Newberry but lasted only a couple of minutes before being yellow carded. West Leeds began to press and from a well won line-out drove on to ten metres out sending the ball blind for winger Smith to stroll in unopposed for a try.

Whilst the try was being celebrated a brawl broke out. West Leeds prop Kisby was sent off, Nick Brook was yellow carded, the referee appeared to forget he had awarded a try but was vehemently reminded by the Leeds players and the score stood. Anthony Cadman's five conversions and one penalty will come in handy when the points tally is reckoned next Saturday evening.

Notwithstanding the shaky periods this was a great effort by an Ilkley team that is playing some of the best rugby ever seen at Stacks Field. The whole team can take much satisfaction from their performance here at Blue Hill Lane.

Now the waiting!