West Bowling made the long journey home from Wath Brow Hornets convinced two controversial refereeing decisions had cost them two vital points in their National Conference Premier Division survival battle.

Bowling eventually lost 14-12 but they had struck the first blow when full back Michael Derrick capitalised on fine work from prop Paul Hutchinson and wingman Ben Whyte added the conversion.

The Hornets, who are running neck and neck with Wests for the fourth-bottom safety spot, fought back to take a 12-6 interval lead and then added a penalty on the restart.

From then on in it was a nightmare for Bowling, as player-coach Peter Simpson explained: "I put up a high kick and the winger knocked on. Tim Sutcliffe picked up and scored but instead of giving the try the ref gave a scrum. He said he made a mistake and blew early."

Despite the setback, Bowling stuck to the task and when prop Andrew Senior powered his way over, Whyte again added the extras.

With five minutes left, wingman Nick Fontaine dived over in the corner for what appeared to be a winner.

But Simpson said: "The ref, who was only yards away, gave a try but their own linesman put his flag up, so the ref went over and asked him his opinion. He obviously said Nick put a foot in touch and the try was disallowed."

  • West Bowling A had a less stressful afternoon with a 24-12 home win against Boothtown in the second round of the Andrew Bennett Trophy.

Tries by Adam Bose and Martin Tordoff, both converted by Mark Dunning, kept matters all square at 12-12 going into the second half.

But a trio of touchdowns from Matt Sharpe, Mick Green and Tordoff, which all went all unconverted, ultimately ensured a comfortable winning margin.