Cleckheaton surged to a 27-13 victory at home to Huddersfield YMCA to maintain their winning run at Moorend, where they haven’t lost since the beginning of February.

The North One East hosts turned on the style in the second half to see off their local rivals after a strong defensive effort in the first 40 minutes.

YMCA kicked off playing with the wind and put the home side under pressure early on, successfully kicking an early penalty through Gavin Stead. The same player had another chance on 14 minutes but his kick came back off the post and, when Cleckheaton knocked on trying to clear their line, the resulting scrum led to an opening try for YMCA.

Cleckheaton made a great break down the middle via Mikey Hayward but he was tackled just short of the line.

On the half-hour mark, a Cleckheaton scrum rumbled forward and was well controlled by Jack Seddon, who picked up from the back and scored Cleck’s opening try. Mike Swetman was wide with the conversion.

Stead missed another penalty at the end of the half when Thiu Barnard was penalised for a shoulder charge on YMCA lock Ed Black and got a yellow card and an injury which ruled him out of the rest of the game.

On 49 minutes, Seddon peeled off a line out and powered over for his second try, putting Cleck ahead for the first time. Swetman added a towering conversion from the right touchline to double Cleckheaton’s lead to 12-8.

The referee awarded YMCA a penalty on the half way line before play restarted, but Stead was short with that effort.

The big Cleckheaton pack was powering forward in the mauls and giving YMCA a torrid time. On 60 minutes, winger Martin Woodhead joined the push and was rewarded for his effort when he grounded the ball a short time later. Swetman added the conversion and then extended Cleck’s lead with a simple penalty on 71 minutes after YMCA had a player yellow carded for not releasing.

Huddersfield added a second try when concerted attacks down the right wing left Cleckheaton short of defenders.

As the clock ticked on, a sublime chip ahead by Swetman was gathered by Hayward, who stepped inside the defence to score the bonus-point try for Cleck.

No game this Saturday, but the team then take the long trip up the A1 for a mouth-watering clash with Morpeth on 13th October.