‘A BAD day at the office’ was how one Old Grovians supporter summed up the 44-19 defeat away to bottom club West Park in Yorkshire Two.

A woeful first 30 minutes saw West Park take a 27-0 lead from which Grovians never could really recover despite having the majority of possession in the second half.

The forwards always had parity and maybe just edged their battle but the Grovians backs had a day they will want to forget with handling and passing not up to their usual standard. Grovians made good breaks but always that last pass never went to hand and on several occasions possible Grovian tries ended up with West Park countering and scoring tries of their own.

After 14 minutes West Park went ahead when Jack Hartley made a great break up field only for the move to break down and Park countered to score a converted try.

This was soon followed by a penalty and further converted try by West Park. A fine penalty kick from 30 metres out wide on the left extended the lead to 27-0.

Just before the break Grovians gave a glimmer of hope to their supporters when No 8 Joe Sowden touched down from a rolling maul after Grovians had a line-out 10 metres out. Alex Masterson added the conversion.

Grovians started the half well but from a maul wide left on half way the West Park hooker suddenly broke away and ran down the left wing, only to be tackled just short of the line. He popped the ball up and West Park scored their bonus point try.

Max Kennedy made a great run and was tackled in the lefthand corner. Grovians were given a scrum and from the resulting drive Sowden scored his second try of the game.

Any glimmer of a fightback was quickly extinguished when West Park outpaced the Grovian defence to score two more tries.

A late rally saw Hartley touch down from a series of forward drives with Masterson converting. As Grovians looked for the consolation of a try bonus, any hope was lost as Masterson’s penalty kick for touch was missed.

Grovians drop to sixth in the table with a tough home game against Wath (who beat Ripon 47-14) to come on Saturday.

Old Grovians: Kennedy, Mitchell, Burns, Phillips, Butler, Masterson, Lister, Sowden, Secker, Hardy, Dodd, Hartley, Pickering, Crookes, Kvedas Replacements: - Neal, Cockshott, Rika-Rayne