Cleckheaton 10, Chester 14

Cleckheaton, after a six-week lay-off, started this National League Three North game yesterday with an early try, but the lack of discipline and the boot of Rhys Hayes denied them a winning start to the New Year.

Cleckheaton started well, with Dom Castle braking the Chester defence within two minutes and Pete Murphy going over for a try, Ross Hayden converting.

Chester hit back and pulled back three points with a penalty in the 12th minute from Hayes.

The visitors kept the pressure on and were up to within five metres of the Cleckheaton line but even after two penalties to Chester, Cleck-heaton held on and actually pushed them back, and it wasn’t until the 22nd minute that Dave Leggett went in for a try.

Hayes’ conversion attempt hit the post and the game flowed end to end but with nobody having a real chance of scoring and it wasn’t until the 38th minute that Hayes again converted a penalty.

Minutes later, Hayden converted a penalty to make the score 11-10 in Chester’s favour.

Cleckheaton had a chance to score late in injury time but the ball went to ground.

In the 43rd minute, Hayes converted a penalty but from then on both sides couldn’t control the game and the referee started sin-binning players.

The first to go was Cleckheaton’s Lance Hamilton in the 40th minute, James Farrell following ten minutes later.

Liam Lawton was binned for a late tackle on Hayden in the 60th minute, and Cleckheaton’s Richard Piper completed the tally of yellow cards.

On the plus side for Cleckheaton, they earned a bonus point but, as the table shows, they need to start winning games soon to stay in this division.