Wath 5, Otliensians 19, For their visit to Wath, Otliensians had to make changes at scrum-half and hooker with the regulars in these positions being injured or unavailable. Andy Walton came in as hooker and Mattie Dykes deputised at scrum-half.

On a blustery afternoon, Otliensians got off to a good start when after only five minutes, Mattie Dykes caught the opposition napping when he took a quick tap penalty and darted through the opposition from 40 metres out to score near the posts. A Simon Hawkins conversion gave the visitors a 7-0 lead.

Play then settled down in midfield as both packs tried to gain supremacy. Playing with a slight slope, Otliensians' front row of Mattie Payne, Andy Walton and Peter Bonner had the edge in the set scrums taking three against the head.

The line-outs were less convincing due to inexperience at throwing in, but nevertheless, Brett Tenniswood managed to get some clean ball as well as disrupting the opposition's ball.

Territorially, Wath were having the better of these exchanges, particularly when progress by Otliensians was often nullified by them giving away penalties.

However, a good back move from the visitors saw winger Mattie Tenniswood make good ground down the right and Ian Chaplin was on his elbow to finish off the move in the corner. Hawkins' conversion attempt narrowly missed leaving Otliensians 12-0 ahead.

Wath stepped up the pace and only good defence by veteran fly-half Simon Coates, centre Andy Haywood and full-back Simon Hawkins kept the line clear.

With five minutes to go before the break, the Wath winger was put away and although the defence seemed to have him covered, he slipped out of the tackle and scored in the corner. The conversion attempt failed.

Otliensians responded almost at once when swift passing along the backs put Adie Fawell into space and he dummied his way over half way out. Simon Hawkins converted to give the visitors a 19-5 lead at half-time.

The home side started the second-half strongly down the slope but Otliensians defended well with captain Richard Smith always in the thick of it along with Dave Roberts and Rob Arbuckle. When Wath did occasionally manage to get moves going, there was always solid tackling and clearing at full-back by Simon Hawkins, who prevented what looked to be at least two certain tries.

Much of the play was scrappy for the rest of the half with both sides struggling to put moves together but Otliensians held their ground with good solid tackling.

Mattie Dykes was always troubling the opposition with his sniping runs and his half-back partner Simon Coates put in some good clearing kicks.

When the final whistle came, Otliensians could take credit for a solid performance against a side who are always difficult to beat away from home. Simon Hawkins at full-back had an outstanding game and Mattie Tenniswood was very sound in both defence and attack.

As relative newcomers in the positions, scrum-half Mattie Dykes and hooker Andy Walton acquitted themselves very well.

It was good to get back to winning ways, but if Otliensians are to regain their position at the top of the league they must continue to work at reducing their penalty count.