Bradford Salem 22, Bridlington 13

Bradford Salem continued their excellent start to Yorkshire Division One yesterday with a hard-fought victory over last season's runners-up Bridlington.

Despite being on top in the early phases, Salem went 3-0 behind when they were penalised for being offside.

However, the Bradford side then went ahead 9-3 courtesy of three penalties in quick succession from centre Jonathan Davies.

Salem continued to create chances but, as in the previous week against Yarnbury, forced passes in good scoring positions let them down.

The home side did finally manage to register a score when flanker Steve Cowman drove over from a driving maul.

However, referee Dave Lindsay failed to see the grounding and instead awarded a penalty try, which Davies improved to give the Heaton club a 16-3 lead.

Bridlington cut the deficit to 16-6 with a second successful penalty but Davies responded with his fourth penalty to give his side a 19-6 lead at half-time.

In the second half, Salem had several opportunities to kill the game off but on each occasion panic seemed to set in.

Even the normally reliable Davies missed two relatively simple penalty attempts which would have put the game out of reach.

However, Davies was finally on target with a penalty to put the Bradford side 22-6 ahead.

Then, in the dying seconds, after Bridlington had been camped on Salem's line, referee Lindsay awarded a second penalty try, this time in the visitors' favour, to give a final scoreline of 22-13.