N Brighton.......7

Saracens.........11

Otley Saracens suffered again from the club's lengthening injury list and had to make a number of changes for this Merit table game.

The home side had a strong front five but the young front row of Chris Burns, Scott Poole and Richard Bush stuck to their task well and were well supported in the second row by veteran Richard Malir and Simon Henry, returning after an absence of 18 months.

New Brighton sensed they had the edge in the forward battle and after considerable pressure they took the lead with a converted try. Saracens kept working hard defending strongly and when they did win quality possession they moved it quickly with the young half-backs Peter Wright and Alistair Monks combining well.

Phil Maynard and Scott Manson bottled up the centre and looked dangerous in attack.

Gradually Saracens started to cause New Brighton problems and when they strayed off-side Alistair Monks kicked the penalty to make it 7-3. Encouraged Saracens piled on the pressure and when the home side were penalised again Alistair Monks made no mistake with the penalty to make it 7-6 at half-time.

It was end-to-end play on the re-start as both sides struggled to gain the upper hand but it was Saracens who broke the deadlock when they won quick second phase ball and moved it wide and Jonathan Bennett joined the line from full-back to go over in the corner.

In the closing staged Richard Bush sustained a rib injury and had to retire and the referee ruled uncontested scrums.

As a result neither side could maintained pressure and with the defences on top there was no further score, Saracens hanging on for a narrow win.

This was a gutsy performance and there was good news when Jonathan Skurr and first team skipper Phil Griffin came through their fitness tests with no ill effects.

Ripon Thirds.........27

Viscounts..............14

Viscounts, playing their first game of the season, found a Ripon side who had already played three games tough opposition.

Viscounts made the early running but Ripon scored a breakaway try through sketchy tackling and then added a penalty. Jamie Chappell hit the post with a penalty following strong pressure but in injury time Ripon produced an excellent move to score a converted try to make it 15-0 at half-time.

On the re-start the home side had the rub of the green twice in three minutes when a loose ball bounced kindly for their speedy winger to score.

Viscounts looked down and out but they staged a great fight back with their pack gaining the upper hand and first Haydn Blemmings and then Mike Gillson crashed over, Jamie Chappell adding both conversions and the final whistle went with Viscounts pressing hard.

In a scratch back division Peter Saddington had a sound game at full-back and Alistair Reid worked hard at scrum-half.

Wharfedale Colts......8

Otley Colts...............10

Otley Colts came through their opening match with a deserved but finally unconvincing victory in the wet conditions. They started in positive style pegging Wharfedale in their half and the early pressure produced a penalty for James Henry and a well taken try by Malcolm Briggs, converted by James Henry.

However, a constant stream of penalties against Otley reduced the pressure on Wharfedale and Wharfedale finally took advantage with a well taken, long range drop goal.

The second-half produced a scrappy game with mistakes by both sides. Wharfedale scored a try by kicking through and finding the Otley defence out of position but missed the conversion. They almost repeated this in the final minutes but knocked on in making the touchdown, much to Otley's relief.