Aireborough 19, Baildon 14

Baildon’s promotion hopes suffered a damaging blow with this defeat to their local rivals at Nunroyd Park.

The gripping derby made London Society referee Matthew Todd’s six-hour round trip from Hertford-shire worthwhile as Aireborough deservedly avenged their 41-14 defeat at Jenny Lane last month.

The hosts also went through to the next round of the Yorkshire Silver Trophy as the match was played as a double header.

Baildon are still in second place in the league behind champions Wath but promotion rivals Goole and Bramley Phoenix have games in hand.

Wath have yet to visit Bramley Phoenix (April 9) and host Baildon (April 16), while Goole’s last match of the season is a potentially crucial one at Aireborough on May 7.

And Aire’s head coach Simon Carbutt has promised that if push comes to shove in five weeks’ time then his team will do their utmost to defeat the East Yorkshire side and possibly earn Baildon promotion at the same time.

He said: “We have had several games this season that we should have won that we didn’t win.

“Baildon have still got a good chance of going up but we want to win all our games as we could still finish in the top four ourselves.”

Having said that, Carbutt called the display “our best performance of the season”.

He added: “We have had a couple of players missing for most of the campaign.

“Craig Stanley, who played at inside centre, has been unavailable because he has been working in Durham, and Nick Holdsworth, who played at fly half, was also missing from our side in the defeat at Baildon.

“Nick controlled the game with his tactical kicking and we were able to put our best players in the positions that suited them.

“Also I was very pleased with how we started the game. Generally we have begun games quietly this season and then built into the game but we were good here from the word go.

“I was impressed with the physicality of our game, and we did it for 80 minutes.

“It also helped because it was a derby and we were at home. It helped us give an extra ten to 20 per cent, and we also coped very well with our three sin-binnings.

“The lads did really well with 14 players for 30 minutes and we only conceded seven points in that time.”

Baildon flanker Tom Crane said: “The second half was better than the first but promotion will be very difficult now. Maybe we will have to concentrate on the Aire-Wharfe Cup.”

Aireborough’s Chris Blackshaw missed a second-minute penalty but converted Stanley’s try four minutes later after the centre gathered his own chip ahead.

Second row Richard Helm was the first home player to receive a yellow card but they still reached the interval 7-0 ahead, Baildon fly half Nick Lister having hooked a penalty attempt wide as early as the eighth minute.

Baildon were more willing to throw the ball wide in the second half, and good work by Nick Lister and his brother Hayden paved the way for centre Andy Patchett to score and convert in the 49th minute.

Flanker Jonny Mackey was exultant after scoring a try for Aireborough four minutes later, but while replacement Alex Davies was in the sin-bin two minutes after coming on, Baildon went ahead again through hooker Dale Tabiner’s try which Patchett converted.

A misplaced kick gave home winger Stephen Nolson the chance to sprint 60 metres down the left touchline to score in the 65th minute, Blackshaw adding a superb conversion, and, despite Mackey being sin-binned five minutes later, Baildon couldn’t take advantage of several scoring opportunities in the closing six minutes.