Yorkshire Division One: West Park Leeds 6 Bradford Salem 13

ALTHOUGH Bradford Salem travelled to basement club West Park Leeds with aspirations of a five-point win, the atrocious conditions at The Sycamores meant that this Yorkshire Division One encounter was always likely to be a low-scoring affair.


Salem had the better of the opening exchanges but suffered an early blow when free-scoring wingman Ryan Smith had to leave the field with a head wound, and was replaced by his former Wibsey Warriors team-mate Harry Hall.


Despite this setback, the visitors continued to dominate, and West Park came close to conceding a penalty try when they received a warning from South Yorkshire Society referee John Wolstenholme after giving away two consecutive penalties in the red zone.


However, the hosts, through some tenacious defending, somehow managed to weather the storm, although Salem were at times guilty of showing a lack of composure in the the testing conditions.


Then, with 38 minutes played and against the run of play, West Park took a 3-0 lead as full back Andy Cromack struck a 40-metre penalty after Salem were guilty of holding on in a tackle.


The visitors responded in positive fashion and were soon once again pressing on their opponents' try line.


From a quick tap, a well-timed pass from skipper and fly half Andy Robinson found Dan Snowden in space but, as the Salem flanker dived over the try line, he was accidentally elbowed by a West Park defender and the ball spilled from his grasp.


Even worse, the former Keighley Cougar received a nasty gash on his head as a result of this tackle and was unable to take any further part in the game and was replaced by Jamie Booth.


After seven minutes of the second half, Salem took the lead when more quick thinking from a penalty by Robinson produced a rare break, and the supporting Hall showed great finishing power to dive under the posts for an excellent try, improved by full back Danny Belcher to put the visitors 7-3 in front.


Belcher increased his side's advantage to 10-3 with a penalty, and it seemed at that point that Salem would just need to play territory to take the points.


However, the hosts had other ideas and, after Belcher's attempted clearance kick went directly into touch, Salem found themselves defending on their own line.


After a wave of attacks from West Park, this time it was Salem's turn to be warned by referee Wolstenholme for conceding penalties in the red zone but the Bradford players showed great determination to keep their opponents out.


Eventually, West Park elected to take three points to reduce the arrears to 10-6 but moments later a Belcher penalty restored the seven-point cushion.


As conditions continued to deteriorate, Salem did well to keep possession in the final stages and they went on to close out a well-earned 13-6 victory.