Otley................11

LYDNEY..............8

MORE fight and effort in the second-half earned Otley a narrow win over lowly Lydney in this Jewson League Division One match at Cross Green, Otley, on Saturday.

Before a poor attendance of about 250 Otley were made to struggle for their first win of the new year, which means they have now gained three from their last five matches. Otley's last match was at Morley on December 27 and since then they have managed a draw at Wharfedale.

Mind you they have had to play Rosslyn Park, Leeds and Newbury in successive weeks and have had 106 points scored against them in these matches.

Otley have also been hard hit by injuries to a number of key players and in fairness to them they have battled hard against all these teams despite being beaten.

In this match Otley did not play up to

their usual standard but they managed to win thanks to fly-half Simon Hawkins, who kicked a pressure penalty in the 72nd.

On the other hand Lydney will have returned home feeling they should have taken with them at least one point. But for three missed penalty attempts by their

full-back James Reid in the s second, fourth and 30th minutes then they would have returned home in a happy mood.

It was a dull match - indeed a poor match to watch - but then it was a cold afternoon and there was a difficult wind.

Lydney's fire and determination put Otley on the back foot for long periods. In fact apart from one occasion the first 20 minutes were played in the Otley half. Lydney applied so much pressure that Otley had to be on the alert at all times and only some fine tackling kept the visitors out until the 39th minute when prop Paul Price forced his way over. In the third miniute of injury time fly-half Ryan Lewis dropped a goal to give the visitors an 8-0 lead at half-time.

Otley were awarded their first penalty in the 53rd minute and Simon Hawkins made no mistake but was unable to add the conversion points to prop Ian Clappison's 67th minute try.

While Lydney dominated the first-half Otley had the better of the exchanges after the interval. It looked as if a draw was on the cards until the 77th minute when a Lydney player was caught off-side and Hawkins put the ball between the posts to give Otley a win which will surely lift their spirits.

Richard Barlow proved to be an able deputy for the injured Peter Rutledge at full-back. Rutledge suffered a chest injury at Newbury the previous week.

Centre Mark Billington back in action after injury played one of his strong running and involvement games. Right winger Simon Smith, also back after injury, showed a good turn of speed while Hawkins showed plenty of grit and contributed some fine kicking and running.

Lock Ian Carroll made a number of devastating forages and jumped well in the line-out No 8 Jonathan Burke and skipper Neil Hargreaves worked hard.

Now they have got this match over Otley can now prepare for their trip to Liverpool St Helens on Saturday.

Veteran supporter John Roberts of Yeadon celebrated his 92nd birthday by attending the match with Lydney. His grandson, Richard Malir, has recently recommenced playing with Otley.

Doncaster 19

Otley Saracens 10

SARACENS' winning run came to an end with a lack-lustre performance not helped with a number of last minute changes and accidents on the A1 meant they arrived late.

The home side hit them from the kick-off with a physical game and took the lead when their big No 8 powered over. Saracens had to withstand tremendous pressure but they eventually broke out and should have scored but spilled the ball in the tackle, a problem they had all afternoon.

Just before half-time John Hillier-Hall broke to feed Nick Brown, who went over to level.. They should have scored on the re-start when Hillier-Hall picked up at the base on half-way to feed Richard McCabe and the scrum-half made a superb run to the line but the support did not get there quick enough .

Doncaster 's No 8 forced his way over for a converted try. This set-back roused Saracens and they began to look like a team but all their good work was wasted when twice the ball was dropped on the line. Doncaster took full advantage and a quick tap produced a converted try. Saracens hit back and eventually showed what might have been when the basll was spread right where William Darby strode through to score. The conversion was missed again and Doncaster held on for a deserved victory.

Scrum-half Richard McCabe making his debut showed he is a player with potential with a gutsy performance. He was Simon Hawkins' partner in the England 16 group and has had experience with Saracens whilst at college in London.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.