THE better side won on the day, as Moortown dominated the first hour of proceedings to beat visiting Bradford & Bingley 27-17 in North One East.

The Bees opened the brightest though, and were first on the scoreboard when Sam Murphy scooted clear to the right of the posts in the fourth minute to put his side 5-0 up.

Eight minutes later, the home side levelled the scores, as right winger Tom Moorby raced into the corner for the first of his two scores on the day. Soon after, centre Ged Innes crashed over to put Moortown 10-5 in front.

For the next 20 minutes, the game remained fairly evenly balanced, but the home side were making good use of the wind which intermittently whipped down the ground.

As the clock ticked towards the end of the half, Moortown drove deep into Bees territory to the left of the posts.

B&B's defence held firm but was tightly bunched around the posts. Moortown seemed to sense the wide open spaces appearing on the right and after two long passes, there was no-one on hand to stop prop Tom Pritchard gleefully flopping over the try line in the corner.

Ed Crossland landed the extra points, to make it 17-5 with around four minutes of the half to play.

There was a sudden urgency about the Bees, as they sought to pull a score back before half time, and in quick succession there were three passages of play which might have led to scores for them.

First of all, Heimuli Taufa benefitted from the referee missing a clear obstruction by a Bees player, which put the young back rower clear up the left wing.

With the Moortown defender committed to the tackle, anticipating that the ball would get shipped on to Adam Sutcliffe, who was haring up in support, it appeared that Taufa just had to jink inside the final defender to plough over for the score.

But as his pass landed in the arms of Sutcliffe, the Bees winger, the Moortown defender, the corner flag and the touchline all collided at once.

Without the benefit of video technology, it was difficult to see exactly what had happened as Sutcliffe dived for the corner.

But the Moortown touch judge was in no doubt as he came haring up to the corner with his flag raised, with the Wagon Laners awarded a five metre scrum.

Then, with Jamie Martin poised in the centre to crash into the Moortown defence, the ball never went further than Tom Cummins at number eight and the home side's line remained intact.

The Bees got the ball back for a third go at the line, just wide of the posts, and as their backs engineered a move three metres out, it appeared a high tackle had dislodged the ball from the attacking player charging for the line.

The referee saw nothing wrong with the challenge though and gave the knock on.

As the second half got under way, the home side wasted little time in extending their advantage, and also picking up the four-try bonus point, as Moorby reached the whitewash on 43 minutes.

The Bees were struggling to contain the Moortown backline and their chief tormentor was the pacy number 10, Crossland, who was finding excellent field position with his kicking, but also setting off on several telling breaks, either through or around the opposition defence.

With 57 minutes played, Crossland was over the line out wide on the right and it appeared that it might now be all over for the visitors.

However, right on the hour mark, Moortown's scrum half was sin-binned for dissent and this seemed to suddenly lift the Wagon Laners.

Almost immediately, they were in Moortown territory and seemed to sense that overlaps would now be easier to manufacture with their hosts a man down.

A promising attack seemed to have ground to a halt, as a ball out from midfield bobbled along the ground in the direction of Sutcliffe.

But after gathering the errant pass, the B&B winger looked up and to his left and saw wide open spaces between himself and the left hand corner flag.

After a brief moment to engage top gear, Sutcliffe was off and crossed in the corner to pull the score back to 27-10.

With regular kicker, Lance Taylor, sidelined with an eye injury, Tom Cummins stepped up to take the conversion and added the extra points from out on the left touchline.

Five minutes later, as the Bees bumped and barged away at the home defence, it was Cummins who was able to crash over for his side's third try to pull his side within 10 points with around 11 minutes left.

After that period of dominance, the Bees were unable to make any further inroads into the Moortown defence, and the home side finished the game as deserved winners.