Ilkley battle in defeat

Ilkley........................10

ILKLEY and their loyal band of supporters travelled to the aptly named Blue Hill Lane for this important league match. Important for Ilkley, for they badly need some league points, and important to get rugby going again after a long Christmas lay-off.

The ground conditions were good but a cold wind blew across the pitch making kicking and line-out throwing difficult.

West Leeds are a well drilled outfit with big, fast backs and forwards who would prove difficult to contain, especially since Ilkley had a weakened side, missing Chris Hems and Guiseppe Rogers.

Ben Wade made his league debut at hooker and Dave Richardson his debut at No 8, both lads acquitting themselves well and contributing to the team effort.

The game was five minutes old when Ilkley conceded a penalty on the Leeds ten metre line. West Leeds ran and a diving miss pass put the right-wing clear who touched down half-way out making it 5-0.

Ilkley conceded two more penalties to make the score 11-0 after the first quarter. Ilkley then began to fight back, taking the game to West Leeds and camping on the try line but with their best efforts they could not break down the defence and came away with a missed penalty chance.

Ilkley then had to defend and did this well, taking several line-outs and turning over loose balls.

They then returned to the West Leeds line and scored a good try only to be denied by an unsighted referee.

West Leeds kicked-off and forced Ilkley to touch down in goal. From the ensuing scrum their No 8 crossed for the try, taking the score to 16-0.

Ilkley kicked off and held West Leeds in their 22 and Tony Bennett kicked a penalty, making the half-time score 16-3.

The second-half saw Ilkley camped on their own line for long periods and after good defensive work the try line was breached on three occasions and with the extras took the score to 38-3.

This looked ominous for a real humiliation but Ilkley, showing great spirit, broke out of defence and Ian Moffatt made a telling run, ignoring a three-man overlap to his left, he ploughed on and was eventually tackled.

B J Fowler picked up the loose ball and scored half-way out, Tony Bennett converting well to make it 38-10. West Leeds completed the scoring with a penalty.

It may seem a little nave but Ilkley played well in this game, it was not a beating. Ilkley created scoring opportunities on at least a dozen occasions but didn't possess the big aggressive players to break a defence.

What Ilkley do possess is a spirited squad who fight for every scrap of possession and defend to the last man.

It is sometimes unfair to name individuals in a team effort but Chris Pring worked tirelessly at scrum-half, prompting and encouraging; Ben McDonald led from the front, unfortunately retiring hurt after three-quarters of the game; the pack of forwards who did not take one step backwards and the backs who tackled their bigger opponents into the ground.

Ilkley hope that this week they should have two or three players back from injury for the game at Northallerton. Your support would be most welcome.

Otley snatch a

rare victory

ORRELL.......................20

OTLEY..........................23

OTLEY finally clinched a win to ease their relegation fears when they overcame Orrell on Saturday.

Try scoring chances were missed so Otley found themselves having to defend a six points lead for the last ten minutes - a period when the home side were restricted to a single penalty to give Otley the win.

Given first use of a strong downfield wind Otley looked dangerous but they suffered a setback when Mark Lloyd burst from a maul to set up an attack which culminated in Lee Wakeham going in at the corner.

This gave the home side confidence and they began to look dangerous but astute kicking from Andy Brown and his half-back partner Dan Clappison kept pegging them back.

Otley edged in front with two penalties from Dan Clappison. When he was adjudged to have knocked on under the posts fly-half Dave Slemen kicked the penalty to give Orrell the lead.

Direct running from the Otley forwards had Orrell on the back foot and Robert Whatmuff was cynically felled as he was going in under the posts. The penalty which Clappison converted was poor reward.

Ian Carroll took to the field at half-time in place of the injured Peter Curtis and Otley made a rip roaring start to the second-half. Griffin was unable to hang on to a likely scoring pass but Otley wheeled the ensuing scrum to gain the put in and a pick up by Jon Burke saw him make ground allowing Paul Williams to crash over and Clappison added the goal points.

Slemen however hit back for Orrell landing two penalties, one from his own half, and he followed up with a drop goal to give his side the lead once more.

This was where Otley displayed their professionalism.

A penalty into the home 22 led to a drive which was held near the line. A controlled heel saw Griffin waiting and he sealed his return to first team action with a midfield break which saw Lee Denham at his side to take the scoring pass.

As the touchdown was to the left of the posts the conversion was entrusted to Lofthouse and he made no mistake.

This set up a grand finale but Otley deservedly held out for the points in a ding-dong battle over the closing minutes. Shuttleworth was pulled down after escaping down the touchline and Orrell tried everything they could but were only able to muster another Slemen penalty.

A little more luck would have secured another bonus point as twice possession was lost over the tryline but the manner of victory will have given Otley some confidence for their meeting with league leaders Worcester on Saturday.