WEST Park Bramhope will be without No 8 Ian Moule when they take on Bedford Athletic tomorrow in the NPI cup semi-final at The Sycamores (kick-off 2.30pm).

Moule, 29, damaged his knee during training on Tuesday night and will be greatly disappointed to miss the game which sees his side just 80 minutes from a place in the final at twickenham.

Club captain Tim Pearce steps into Moule's jersey.

Coach Howard Greenwood also makes a return to the side which sees goal-kicking centre Peter Lloyd switch to the left wing.

Captain for the day will be 34-year-old Bob Collins, who takes over the centre berth vacated by Lloyd.

The Park team is: Jon Hall at full-back; Jason Whitehead and Peter Lloyd on the wings, Bob Collins and Ralp Bennett in the centres; and Andy Stewart and Andy Potter at half-back.

In the forwards Gary Demaine and Craig Hardy are at prop, with Richard Woolastone at hooker, Eugene Grimes and Jimmy Houghton take the front row positions, with Mark Weston and Howard Greenwood in the second row and Tim Pearce at No 8.

Replacements are Paul Minns, Matt Storey, Tim Corrigan, Steve Spark, Glen Kilvington and Ryan Duckett.

Bedford Athletic's line-up is: Steve Turner at full-back; Alfred Bartlett and Thomas Cassidy on the wings, Giles Witheat and James Chandler in the centres; captain Ashley Tapper is at stand-off with Chris Eldridge at scrum-half.

The forwards have Richard Porter and Lee Mansell at prop and Darren Stapleton at hooker, Mike Curry and Chris Wright are in the front row with Darren Goodwin and John Egan lining up in the second-row and Thomas Gray at No 8.

Replacements are Marcus Buckle, Neil Paterson, Ben Mason, Nick Parish, Mike Swift and Ian Skingsley.

Rugby Football Union panel referee Ian Langley, from Kent, takes the whistle for the semi-final, with Brian Harris and Clive Parfitt as touch judges and John Fox as referee's adviser.

Before the game there is a curtain raiser between West Park Bramhope Under-9's and Otley Zebras Under-9's, kick-off at 1.30pm.

The teams are: West Park Bramhope - Michael Broxup, Andrew Cromack, Geoffrey Cunningham, Ben Donnison-Post, Sam Duggan, Kit Kennedy, Joseph Lindsay, Dominic Oddy, Ryan Oddy, Jordan Parker and Jack Simpson.

Otley - David Baldwin, David Bower, Luke Chapman, Joshua Doble, Keiron Doyle, Ben Harris, Dale Kennedy, Jason Moss, Joseph Mulligan, Sam Pickering, Joseph Seal and Thomas Wilson.

The match will be 15 minutes each way, although both coaches have agreed to widen the pitch to allow all the children to play for the full game.

WEST PARK 38

HULL IONIANS 15

WEST Park Bramhope stepped up their league performance in readiness for their NPI Cup semi-final next Saturday.

In what was expected to be a close Thwaites North One encounter Park threw caution to the wind as they prepared for their crucial cup tie and were outstanding in every department.

They showed great commitment, were physical and produced an error free game along with tackling of the highest order and the two Bedford Athletic spies in the crowd must have been well impressed.

Hull Ionians could not live with the all round skills of Park and it took just seven minutes for centre Ralph Bennett to touch down and winger Peter Lloyd converted.

Lloyd then added three penalties in the next 10 minutes to take the lead to 16-0.

This was further increased when outside-half Andy Stewart, who had a good game, nipped in after tremendous work by the forwards and in particular by Eugene Grimes who was outstanding along with No 8 Tim Pearce who belies his years well.

Lloyd converted and in the 40th minute winger Jason Whitehead, one of the club's promising Colts, scored the first of his three tries to take the half-time lead to 28-0.

On the re-start Park continued their dominance and Whitehead scored again after good work by centres Martin Collins and Ralph Bennett making it 33-0.

The visitors to their credit responded and from a misguided kick scored in the corner through Moorhouse.

Park coach Howard Greenwood, who must take a lot of the credit for the preparation of the side, again used his replacements with an eye to the cup semi-final.

He wisely made five changes and this gave first team debuts to Kevin Sakler and Ben Chadwick.

In this phase the visitors scored two further tries taking the score to 33-15 but Park controlled the remainder of the game Whitehead completed his hat-trick taking the final score to 38-15.

This was a match to savour and all 20 players involved for Park will now remain very focussed on what is going to be the most important match of their careers being just 80 minutes away from a cup final appearance at Twickenham.

Team manager Noel Barker said: 'I am certainly looking forward Saturday. It has got the makings of a cracker of a match and we would welcome all local suppprt to shout us through to the final.'The NPI semi-final againt Bedford Athletic kicks-off at 2.30 pm.

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