Brighouse Rangers 18 Keighley Town 11 - Keighley Town travelled to Brighouse Rangers for a top of the table tie that would see the victors earn important points in the race for promotion.
A hard fought encounter saw tough tackling from the start. A head high tackle resulted in a Town penalty, but Alan Muff could not convert the early opportunity to go into the lead. Town kept up the early pressure and were soon creating problems for the Rangers defence, a superb bullet pass from Darren McNulty to centre Muff saw Muff score unchallenged. Muff converted his own score.
Rangers began to settle into the game after Towns good start, and created an opportunity of their own on 15 minutes. They powered over for an unconverted try to make the scores 4-6.
Town were not disheartened and the Town pack stood up to be counted against the Rangers side.
Town continued to play an open game, and the frustrated Rangers side gave away two penalties which Muff coolly converted.
The second half was started well by Town. They continued to tdominate Rangers, and created opportunities. Kennedy made a line break on 10 minutes which saw him brought down by an illegal high tackle. The referee awarded only a penalty for the foul play, and the full-back remained on the field. Muff was unable to extend Town's lead further.
The next 20 minutes saw a very tight game, Darren Lynham's return to action saw him create space for other players, but defences were very much on top. Rangers were getting into the Town half for long periods and this told when they scored on 30 minutes.
The tight scoreline was further emphasised when Stokes converted a drop goal to put Town 8-11 in the lead. The pressure was too much and Rangers crashed over to effectively seal the game with two minutes remaining.
Rangers scored a final try in the dying seconds, to put Rangers top of the league and looking strong for top spot.
Tomorrow Town entertain Bradford's Dudley Hill in another game that see's both sides chasing promotion. Kick off is at 2.20pm at Marley's Tip Top pitch.
Silsden Park Rangers 29
Queensbury 26
Anybody leaving the match early would be staggered to hear the final score.
Queensbury totally dominated this game for 50 minutes after a bright start by the very young Cobbydale side. The scoring opened when Chris Fell burst through two defenders to score in the corner an unconverted try. In the play before the try, young Silsden loose forward, Lee Shaw, had to be taken to hospital with a gash in his head that required stitches.
Silsden had to rely on young new signings, Nicky and Jay Smith coming straight into the fray. Silsden pressed hard, and strong runs from prop from Bowness and Doherty forged Silsden good field position after Queensbury conceded a penalty for abuse to the referee.
On the last tackle, Jon Gwilliam dummied to kick, and threw a beautiful pass to stand off John Williams whose angle of run pierced the Queensbury defence to score under the posts. Andy Bowness converted to add the extras. Silsden then seemed to lose the plot, and senior players seemed to make far too many basic errors and let the visitors in with a converted try. Queensbury then dominated, but last ditch tackles and dropped ball denied Queensbury further points to give a half time score of 10-6.
The second half first 30 minutes were all Queensbury, scoring three tries and two conversions.
Silsden seemed to be destined for their second defeat of the season by Queensbury at 10-26. With 10 minutes left on the clock, a great break from Gwilliam was supported by Andy Bowness who passed back to Gwilliam who was tackled five meters from the try line but managed a superb pass in the tackle back to Bowness who scored under the posts. He converted his own try to narrow the gap to 10 points.
From the kick off from Andy Bowness, Queensbury could not prevent the ball from going dead and the drop out from under their own posts was collected by Gwilliam, who put Bowness through a gap, and the Silsden full back went in for his second try in as many minutes, converting it himself.
Silsden were now just four points behind and on the next set, Silsden forged good field position with good drives from Chris Langdale and Neil Jordan, and on the last tackle, a grubber kick from John Williams went over the try line to be pounced on for his hat trick from Andy Bowness.
The Andy Bowness show continued with a superb conversion to give Silsden a 2 point lead with 5 minutes left on the clock. Silsden again forced an error early in the count from Queensbury, and after 5 tackles found themselves in front of the Queensbury posts, and there was that man again, Andy Bowness, at hand to drop a field goal. Silsden played out their next set, and the referees whistle came to signal that Silsden had played their "Get Out Of Jail" card just in the nick of time. While this game was not a classic by any means, the young Silsden side missing many regular players can be justly proud of themselves.
Silsden will need all their regular players back if they mean to challenge the top of Division 2 side Kippax away this week. Kick-off is at 2.30 pm.
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