Cleckheaton 27 Bradford & Bingley 19

MAYBE scoring a try in his comeback match against Bradford & Bingley was James Wilson's reward for a brutal three weeks.

The 29-year-old Cleckheaton player spent about half of that time in hospital suffering from inflamed kidneys.

"The pain was intense," admitted Wilson, who has been diabetic since he was ten.

"They likened it to childbirth, so at least I know what that feels like!

"I played against Dinnington three weeks ago and woke up on the Sunday morning with lower-back pain.

"It got worse so I initially went to Dewsbury & District Hospital and then they transferred me to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

"At first they thought it was appendicitis or meningitis and then they realised that my kidneys were inflamed.

"I spent ten days in hospital and they gave me a course of antibiotics which I only finished on the morning of the match against the Bees, so this was my first match back.

"All I have to do now is go back to hospital on Monday for a blood test to see if my kidneys are working properly."

Cleckheaton went into this derby having lost their previous seven league matches – and it looked like that sequence would extend to eight as Bradford & Bingley took a 12-0 lead after 14 minutes.

The visitors started the day on the same number of points as Cleckheaton (39), with both hovering just above the North One East relegation places.

After a start that was punctuated by penalties, Bees centre Fuifui Moimoi almost created something for Rob Woodhead in the eighth minute but the former player's clever offload was knocked on by the stooping veteran lock.

Two minutes later, the Tongan ran hard into Cleckheaton No 8 Jack Seddon, who, to his credit, got straight back up again after being knocked over.

However, visiting scrum half Dan Jeffrey then spotted a chink in the home defence and darted through unopposed to score.

Fly half Tanner Lightfoot converted – and in the 14th minute he was lining up another conversion after Cleckheaton left winger Grant Fitzsimmons spilled a high kick and Bees flanker Louis Fraser seized on the rolling ball and moved it left via No 8 Tom Cummins, Lightfoot and full back Adam Sutcliffe for left winger James Morton to score in the corner.

Lightfoot missed that kick at goal but the hosts must have been delighted to turn round 15-12 ahead, especially as they were playing against an intermittent breeze on a beautifully sunny afternoon.

Cleckheaton centre Matt Piper gradually sized up Moimoi and broke through to put Wilson over in the 18th minute.

Centre Mike Swetman added the conversion but things then got a little feisty, with referee Mike Hurdley (West Yorkshire Society) having to call skippers Piper and Tom Booth together to try and get them to instil some calm in their team-mates.

The visitors then missed a big overlap opportunity down the right when some marvellous sleight of hand by Moimoi gave Cummins the chance to run. But he opted to kick the ball downfield when a pass to his right probably would have brought the Bees a try.

Swetman's first penalty success made it 12-10 in the 38th minute but Cleckheaton missed a glorious chance to take the lead two minutes later when Piper got over the line, but, with no-one near him, he dropped the ball a fraction of a second before grounding it.

Piper made up for that big error in time added on, however, taking a quick tap penalty and going left to put left winger Grant Fitzsimmons over for a try.

Swetman missed the conversion but Cleckheaton were still three points better off, although as former club chairman Mike Smith rightly pointed out, they would have been five points up if Piper had scored his earlier try as Swetman would have added the conversion as it was much nearer the posts.

A melee early in the second half was followed by a second Swetman penalty and the Bees were finding it very difficult to get out of their 22 into the elements.

A third Swetman penalty extended the lead to 21-12 in the 68th minute and another followed five minutes later after the Bees had lost hooker Mat Cochrane to a yellow card, just after Swetman hit a post with a medium-range drop-goal attempt.

Morton was then sacrificed as the match went to uncontested scrums and Swetman made sure of the points with his fourth penalty of the half right on time.

The match was far from over, however, as referee Hurdley found 12 minutes of stoppage time, during which Cleckheaton prop Paul Turner was sin-binned for over-zealous close up and personal celebration of a visitors' error, while Bees centre Jack Malthouse scored a converted try a minute before the finish of a half that never seemed to end.

Cleckheaton, who are now four places and ten points above the relegation line, should garner enough points from their final six matches to survive, especially as four of them are at home.

Bradford & Bingley, meanwhile, are only two places and six points above the dreaded black line and have a tougher run-in.

Bees director of rugby Martin Whitcombe said: "Cleckheaton were the better team and deserved to win but we gave away too many penalties.

"The only sustained pressure that we had in their 22 in the second half came in the final five minutes – but the changes we are having to make every week are killing us."