CLECKHEATON hit the road to Clifton Park for the second time in two weeks, gaining revenge for their league defeat with a 24-19 Yorkshire Cup win over York.

Both sides fielded a mixture of first and second team players, with youngsters Ben Etchells, Callum Green, Henry Iwanejko, Charlie McGovern and Stephen Noble all making their first-team debuts and the Peter Pan-like Jarrad Toulson picking up another cap.

James Wilson took up the scrum half position and Ronan Evans returned at stand-off. Matt Wood joined Josh Malkinson in the second row, behind front three of Will Denham, Niall Jackson and Iwanejko, leaving Josh Clough, Matt Deighton and Josh Plunkett to complete the eight.

York took an early lead with an unconverted try when the dancing feet of Sam Elliott sliced through Cleckheaton’s defence.

The visitors got into their stride and Martin Woodhead made a number of strong jaunts up the wing before Mikey Hayward evened up the scores with the first of a hat-trick of tries. The elusive runner hit a nice line on the inside which Matty Piper spotted to put his centre partner through the gap and Evans added the conversion.

The lead was short-lived as York showed their pace with an attack down Cleckheaton’s left flank for George Davies to score.

Just before half-time Haywood went in for his second, splitting York’s defence to make it 12-12 at the interval.

Cleckheaton had to withstand early second-half pressure when Charlie McGovern (deliberate knock on) and Plunkett (raising the legs above the horizontal) were shown yellow cards. Despite the numeric advantage, York were kept at bay.

Restored to a full complement and Jack Bickerdike at the helm behind the scrum, Cleckheaton made good ground into York’s territory, with Jack Seddon adding spark off the bench.

One of carries proved too strong for York’s defence, who could only stop his forward momentum when he was already over the whitewash.

The visitors seemed to be in the ascendency but left an acre of ground on their left and winger Harry Jinks ran in from the halfway line for the home side. The successful conversion saw them lead 19-17.

Cleckheaton took the game to York with renewed vigour and Malkinson made good headway from a lineout catch before Evans floated a cross-field kick into the outstretched hands of Hayward, who completed his hat-trick and put Cleckheaton into the next round.

To add icing to the cake, Evans converted the try from the touchline.

Cleckheaton’s reward is an away trip to Wharfedale in the third round.

They return to league action on Saturday with a trip to Driffield (2.15pm).