National Division One

Wharfedale 25 Nottingham 5

A five-star performance and rugby's equivalent of a five-card trick by fly-half David Pears earned Wharfedale two valuable league points at the expense of a niggardly Nottingham side, writes Keith Lewis.

The Sheriff's men arrived at Threshfield on the back of four straight wins, including a 27-17 Tetley's Cup Third Round home win over Wharfedale.

A late tackle removed Pears from the cup contest at Beeston in November when Wharfedale looked on course for the Fourth Round and judging by the attention the former Harlequin received in this game the visitors seemed to have roughly the same plan.

On this occasion however Pears came up with the perfect response by scoring in every possible way: a try, two conversions, a penalty and a drop goal. His nap hand was completed in the 69th minute when his tormentor in chief, Nottingham centre Nick Redpath, was finally sent off for an illegal challenge.

Nottingham are undoubtedly a physical side and their approach must owe much to the influence of the 26-year-old, 6ft 6in New Zealander Glen Delaney who captains the side from the second row. They had another Kiwi, Sam Jack, at fly-half and a South African born centre Chris Atkinson who joined the club from La Voulte in France. After this game you could hardly argue the case for exotic foreign imports and as Wharfedale committee man Richard Toyne said: "Forget your lychees and kumquats, give us good old-fashioned English Pears any day!"

However no-one should get the impression that this was a one-man show. It was a totally focused and aggressive whole team performance by a Wharfedale side whose disciplined defence was a major factor on the day. Once again the pack were in sparkling form and with noticeably quicker ball the men outside began to look as though they were reading from the same hymn sheet too. It was certainly encouraging to see the Wharfedale backs score three tries in a league game for the first time this season.

Wharfedale had a distinct territorial advantage in the early exchanges and Nottingham were happy to relieve pressure by getting the ball into touch whenever possible. With the visitors pinned on their line Pears opened the scoring when he darted through a gap for a converted try after nine minutes. Such was the intensity of the forward battle that lock Dennis Wood and prop Neil Dickinson were both temporarily blood-binned and Nottingham's Delaney and Redpath were both spoken to following off the ball incidents.

By this time the scratching shed presidium had good humouredly appointed themselves judge, jury and parentage police, but Nottingham were more rattled by the activities on the pitch.

Flankers Hedley Verity and Russ Buckroyd went close after charging down an attempted clearance and in the 29th minute when Nottingham fly-half Jack knocked on under pressure Wharfedale winger Steve McManus was quickly on to the loose ball before kicking ahead and winning the race to record his first league try of the season. Verity, Buckroyd and scrum-half David Whitfield began to attack around the fringes and the Dalesmen looked good value for their 12-0 interval lead as centre Andy Hodgson was stopped just short after a characteristic 25-metre burst.

The second half started with an aerial ping-pong contest which Wharfedale captain Charlie Vyvyan won on style points. When his Nottingham counterpart Delaney was penalised for a tackle on Pears the home fly-half recovered to land a superb 40-metre penalty and the Wharfedale pack drove on from the restart to camp on the visitors' line.

Centre Mick Harrison almost powered over after a Hodgson break and as the Dalesmen enjoyed a series of five attacking scrums David Whitfield was also held up over the line by a resolute Nottingham defence. Eventually the pressure told and a well-timed pass by Harrison sent fullback Neil Heseltine steaming through for a try under the posts which Pears converted.

The scratching shed mob were silenced temporarily when Nottingham's scrum-half Alan Royer cleverly slid over for his sixth try of the season, but spirits were lifted when back at the other end David Whitfield was driven over by his pack even though he had to settle for a five-metre scrum.

A scoring chance seemed to have slipped away when Pears picked the ball up off his laces, but with the Nottingham back row rapidly closing he toe-poked what could only be described as a "worker" in the direction of the posts. Somehow it sneaked over the bar and the drop goal completed his perfect set of scores, something he could only remember having done once previously, against Leicester.

With both teams sending on replacements and the score 25-5 in Wharfedale's favour the only real excitement of the final quarter was a 30-metre rumble by the home pack which ended with winger Ben Whitfield going close. Nottingham's Redpath finally got his cum-uppance when he thundered into Pears once too often off the ball and was sent to run the bath. The Dalesmen maintained their concentration until the final whistle for a well-deserved win.

Tomorrow (Saturday), ko 2.15pm, there is another titanic four-pointer at The Avenue when Newbury are the visitors, fresh from their win over Manchester.

Hodgson released

The rugby league flirtation of Wharfedale star full back Andrew Hodgson could be over after he was released from his contract by Bradford Bulls yesterday.

Hodgson burst onto the scene in impressive style, making his debut in the World Club Championship against Auckland Warriors.

However he never found his way back after a badly broken leg playing against Paris St Germain.

In total he played 14 games for the Bulls, scoring five tries but none of them came in his five appearances after the injury.

Newly promoted Wakefield Trinity are interested in Hodgson but it may be that the full back decides to limit his rugby commitments to the Greens.

The Bulls said Hodgson's contract had been cancelled in order to reduce the squad to fit in with tough new salary capping measures imposed by the game's authorities and was not a reflection on his performances or potential. A financial settlement has been paid to Hodgson and three others axed from the squad.

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