Yorkshire Division Three: Baildon 25 Wensleydale 13

AFTER three straight defeats, Baildon showed that they have learnt lessons in their 25-13 home victory over Wensleydale in Yorkshire Division Three.

After reclaiming their kick-off up the slope via typical athleticism by Luke Strauss, locks James Fox and Tom Peel drove the ball in and Matt Withers ran the ball into contact, Wensleydale straying offside at a ruck and JJ O'Connell slotted the penalty.

Although the visitors, whose scrummage drove Baildon back, missed a shot at goal, they profited from retaining possession for 16 phases, sucking in the last defender before finding space on the blind side to score in the right corner and add a superb conversion.

O'Connell then missed a penalty after good tidying up work by Will Tomlinson before solid defence caused the visitors to try an ambitious offload, O'Connell intercepting to run the length of the pitch to score and convert.

Over-ambition due to lost line-outs when the ball was thrown to the back, forced last passes and kicks that were too deep then thwarted Baildon up to half-time, both sides adding a penalty to make the interval score 13-10.

In the second half, Tom Peel stole a Wensleydale line-out and Matty Robinson ran a great line for Matty Dixon to take his pass and touch down, O'Connell's conversion making it 20-10.

Despite O'Connell and Robinson weaving their way through the visitors' ranks, Wensleydale were the next to score via a penalty, but Baildon, via Danny Pollard and James Fox, were resilient.

Luke Strauss and Dixon were denied in a foot race by scrambling defence by the visitors, but Pollard and Dan Cookson put in bone-crunching tackles to free the ball, and Dixon collected for Robbie Hill to put Luke Strauss in for the final try.