A bumper crowd turned out at Crossflatts as Keighley Albion broke new ground playing their BNFL National Cup Tie at Ryshworth playing fields. They entertained Warrington based side Rylands in a high scoring game which produced some superb tries - and a 33-20 victory for Albion.

The visitors took an early lead with a converted try and. Albion hit back when Andy Parker split open the Rylands defence, passing out to centre Rob Haughey who raced 50 metres to touch down. Rylands added a penalty to take a 4-8 lead at the break.

A drop goal extended the lead but it was short lived when Bobby Brown took a superb inside ball off Martin Eyres to touch down and kick start Albion's comeback.

The Keighley side kept the pressure on when centre Simon Kelk sent a long pass out to Mark Riddiough, the youngster jinked his way past three defenders for a stunning individual try which Kelk converted.

New signing Wayne McComb made his first team debut as a second-half substitute taking little time to make his mark. He darted through the defensive line, drew the fullback and slipped the ball to the supporting Dean Brook who sprinted in from 30 metres, Kelk converting.

Albion then fell into the trap of trying to score every time they had possession which allowed Rylands to take advantage and hit back with two tries and a drop goal to level the scores at 20-20 and force 20 minutes of extra time.

The Keighley side looked the more eager in the extra spell with Paul Moses prompting his side forward.

Man of the match Dean Brook sealed the game with two further tries to complete his hat-trick, a Moses drop goal completed the scoring to take the Keighley side into the third round draw.

Coach Gary Moorby said: "The day was a great all round success, we were delighted with the support we received. Over 200 people turned out to create a great atmosphere and although we made hard work of it we got the result we wanted."

n Hooker Pat Illingworth was the five try man of the match in Silsden's 56-6 demolition of Shelf Lions, but every player contributed to their biggest away win in a long time.

Phil Lane set the ball rolling with a brilliant solo try, brushing defenders aside and sprinting to the posts from 80 yards. Moments later the same player was on hand to round off a neat link up between Mark Adams and Neil Jordan, and the latter then powered over himself direct from a scrum. Shortly afterwards Illingworth was in for his first try after good work by Nick Pyrah. Jim Caldwell then charged through to create the position for Illingworth's second before he nipped over to complete a quick fire hat trick. Dave Arnold backed up well for the last try of the half, and Adams conversion put Rangers 38-0 up at the break.

Silsden eased off during the second period, but Illingworth was still able to scatter the Shelf defence for two more tries and Mark Kent capitalised on a great pass from Adams to squeeze in at the corner. Shelf, to their credit, never gave up and scored a fine consolation try of their own in the closing stages before Eddie Billing, continuing his excellent form of recent weeks, gained just reward for his efforts by striding through for the final try. Six goals from Adams completed the rout.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Rangers face an altogether tougher proposition when they travel to Division three leaders Littleborough in the Pennine Cup, whilst the 'A' team take on Hillsborough 'A' at home.

Celtic produced a much improved performance despite being beaten 40-10 by Emley Moor.

Moor scored three converted tries in the last 10 minutes to pull clear of a Celtic side who had only three weeks ago conceded over 50 points to the same outfit.

The first half was well balanced, Emley scoring two tries against the run of play. But a quick tap penalty by Paddy Walsh opened up their defence and Neil Kennedy's conversion made it 12-6 at the break.

Shortly after half time Gary Marples made it 12-10, but then a succession of injuries took their toll and Emley were glad to have the pressure off and made Celtic pay in the end.

Aaron Sugden again impressed as did Brian Ingham and Dale Barlow in Celtic's back row. Kennedy and Marples, were Celtic's other stand-out players.

Albion 'A' team's BARLA Cup glory came to a hard fought end when they went down to N.W Counties 3rd Division side Blackpool Stanley 26-6.

Nevertheless they gave a good account of themselves and, for everybody concerned it had been a good experience.

Albion were 'out-toughed' by an experienced side containing several ex-professionals. Stanley started, strongly using their big forwards to batter Albion's resolute defence and their efforts paid off when their loose forward found an opening in the 18th minute to score a converted try.

Hard as captain Phil Hunter, and props, Neil Palmer and the outstanding John Normington drove the ball in the headway was limited and the going was tough. Danny Bowness was sin binned after 21 minutes but with Albion down to 12 men they picked their game up and had the better of the rest of the first half.

Second row pairing Mark Ingham and Gary Boocock were making in-roads into the Stanley defence and were being well supported by half backs Steve Powell and John Williams.

Albion's efforts were well rewarded when Bowness dived under the posts. Dean Condrens conversion levelled the scores on 32 minutes. Albion continued to keep the pressure up and were unlucky not to have been in the lead at half time as a couple of more chances went begging. They started the 2nd half in a similar vein and it looked as though a major upset was on, but Stanley had other ideas.

A drop ball by centre Sean Crossley proved costly as Stanley's right winger swooped in, picked up and raced away to score under the posts and the successful conversion put the sea siders 12-6 in front. Albion were rocked even more 3 minutes later when Stanley's left centre cut through extending their lead to 18-6.

Albion dug deep with some non-stop efforts in an attempt to get back into the game and had a try disallowed for double movement.

It was only in the last few minutes that Stanley really made sure when a fortunate bounce saw their hooker score and a further two goals completed the scoring.

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