Otley Saracens 50

Doncaster 11

AFTER a number of weeks on their travels Saracens celebrated their return to Cross Green with their best performance of the season. Doncaster made the early running with their big left-winger causing problems but Otley were soon building forward momentum and a great drive ended with Matt Holmes powering over for Andy Brown to convert.

Otley were soon back on the attack and Holmes produced a repeat performance to stretch the lead. Doncaster were prepared to run the ball but when they lost possession on the home 22 the ball was spread quickly to Leon Clark who evaded the cover before sprinting away to score under the posts, Brown converting.

Doncaster hit back and when Otley went over the top the visitors took the three points and they followed this with a second shortly after.

Otley picked up their game again and when Doncaster were penalised for handling in the ruck they kicked for the corner. Steve Hudson took a clean catch at the line-out to set up a rolling maul and Matt Holmes came off the back to drive over and complete his hat-trick. Andy Brown converted to stretch the lead and there was just time for Holmes to add a fourth try following good line-out work by skipper Steve Hudson to make it 31-6 at half-time.

Ian Shuttleworth, who had been testing his injured knee, came off at half-time and Andy Brown moved to fly-half with Stuart Wilson at scrum-half. Debutant Ian Clarke made a couple of runs on the re-start but spoilt it by hanging on too long.

Stuart Wilson then got the ball away well from a scrum and slick handling in the backs saw Adrian Keeler race over and Andy Brown converted. The latter then scored when he was up in support of a good forward drive.

Steve Reid came on for Leon Clark and following forward pressure debutant Dennis Hazelton crashed over and Brown's conversion brought up the half-century. There was just time for Doncaster to score a consolation try in the gathering gloom, a reward for a spirited perform-ance.

Driffield A 46

Otley Tongans 8

A MUCH weakened Tongans side lacking a specialist scrum-half were always struggling against a powerful Driffield sec-ond team whose Firsts play in North Division One.

The home side opened strongly and soon took the lead but Otley hit back and Simon Henry scored after good work by the pack. Driffield soon got the upper hand again and added an-other four tries, Tongans' only reward being a Will Foster penalty to make it 32-8 at half-time.

Tongans stuck to their task in the second-half and with spirited defence restricted the home side to two converted tries but had to admit that even with a full side they would have been hard pressed to hold such well drilled opponents. In a spirited team performance Chris Stott worked hard as an emergency scrum-half.

Otley Viscounts 7

Burley First XV 50

VISCOUNTS found themselves over-matched when they took on Burley First XV and although they worked hard the visitors had too much pace and power for Otley, a result of playing regular league rugby. Viscounts' points were a converted try by skipper Jamie Chappell.

Otley Academy Colts 15

Keighley Colts 16

The first home game for some time saw yet another format of players take the field as a number of regulars were unavailable particularly in the forwards. This produced 'a game of two halves' as they say in football.

Otley were well in touch in the first winning some good position, with Chris Thornton, Kyle Sutcliffe and James Jackson spurring on the pack to set up the backs. They forced the first points from a penalty when Keighley, under pressure prevented release after 20 minutes.

The visitors hit back to level shortly after when Otley were adjudged to have killed the ball. The home side the regained the initiative to spin the ball out to the wing for Kevin Freeman for the first try of the game in the corner. Keighley put up firm resistance after they lost their fly-half to a knee injury and frustrated the Otley runners. However Freeman, finding his wing channel crowded dodged and weaved through the pack to score a converted effort under the posts just before half-time.

Five minutes into the second-half Chris Thornton had to leave the field with a calf injury and the visitors restored to a full complement seized advantage of the re-organisation to score. Gaining in confidence they began to run at the Otley lads.

They looked like another team compared to the first-half effort. Inevitably another try brought Keighley to within two points followed by the award of a penalty for killing the ball and this won the game for the visitors.

Otley had all the individual skills but were unable to put them together in this disappointing result.