THE Yorkshire Cup first-round tie at North One East side Cleckheaton went to form as North Premier visitors Ilkley progressed to the quarter-finals with a 51-19 success.

The county cup competition has lost a lot of its sparkle over the last decade, with many of the bigger clubs no longer taking part.

This year’s competition had only 13 entrants with three of those getting a bye and two more getting walkovers.

Cleckheaton v Ilkley was just one of three fixtures that kept to tradition and actually turned out teams to contest for a place in the last eight.

Cleck’s chances of progression looked doubtful from early on, when the Spen Valley men found themselves nine points down without touching the ball. This was due to Ilkley’s ability to retain possession and Cleckheaton’s over eagerness to get their hands on it, the visitors’ man of the match Ben Magee kicking three penalties.

The hosts enjoyed an extended period of pressure with Ronan Evans going close twice and James Wilson being held up within inches.

But they could not fully break Ilkley down and spilled ball from another attack saw scrum half Blake Morgan run most of the 80 metres to Cleck’s line before Mikey Hayward pulled him down. However, Ilkley debutant Ben Fairclough was on hand to pick up play and go in for a converted try. Ilkley added two further tries before the half-hour mark. The first came again from Cleckheaton spilling ball while on the attack. Magee converted both to give the visitors a 30-0 lead.

The hosts restarted in determined fashion, with Luke Pearson putting in a magnificent leap to catch Mike Swetman’s short restart. Cleckheaton pressed hard and created an overlap, which was nicely exploited to put Hayward in at the corner. Swetman kept his cool to slot over a difficult touchline conversion and reduced the deficit to 30-7 at half-time.

Cleckheaton started the second half well without managing to get on the scoreboard.

Once again Ilkley showed their ability to break from their own half as Magee went over following a 50-metre sprint.

Liam Darville charged a kick down and picked up for a well taken try for the home side but two more long-range efforts from Ilkley put them out of sight, former Cleck winger Josh Hall going in for one of them.

Cleckheaton's line-out worked well, with James Crowther being accurate with the throw-ins and Pearson and Ryan Piercy, who shared the home team’s man of the match award, safe as houses in the air.

The hosts' efforts were rewarded when, from the back of a set piece, skipper Matty Piper forced his way over from close range to give them the last try of the day, Swetman adding the extras.

Cleckheaton will lose little sleep about being out of the cup, once a coveted prize but now viewed by many clubs as a distraction.