Seven's heaven as Ilkley ascend to a higher place

Seven points is not normally enough to win league games. The fact that one converted try from Dan Nulty, against one penalty goal from Tigers took the honours just about sums up how tight was the game and how much influence that biting northerly wind blowing at right angles across the pitch had on this exciting though never pretty four pointer league game.

The Dalesmen came out on top and edged Tigers out of second place to occupy that second precious promotion slot themselves. This tense season is really building up to a nail-biting climax with six sides still in contention. One of those six, West Park Bramhope visit Stacks Field on Saturday when Ilkley will be right up for avenging the early season setback at the Sycamores.

In this sort of form the Dalesmen must be favourites to lay the Park bogey to rest and move on in their promotion hunt.

Both Brendan Kelley and Andy Pell can consider themselves unlucky not to have made the starting 15 after such gritty displays at Ripon but Simon Smith got the nod for the right wing berth and Dermott Foley was recalled at lock. He had a tremendous game taking Man-of-the-Match accolade for his faultless work in the line and a commendable tackle count.

Experienced scrum half Chris Pring deputised for the injured Tim Barley. Referee Mr Bob Goldcup who has officiated in two previous Ilkley games this season appeared to be having an off day, some of his decisions leaving the spectators dumbfounded.

The Ilkley pack had taken charge early on and clearly had the Tigers front row beaten but as with England and Mr Andre Watson, they found themselves on the wrong end of Mr Goldcup's decisions on too many occasions.

However post-match discussions revealed he had spoken to the Ilkley front row about their scrummaging technique. So when young Fred Matthews took issue with him in a mad moment of frustration in what technically should have been a red card offence, he took account of Matthews'relative youth and showed yellow instead.

That one decision made up for all the other controversial ones and demonstrates the art of sympathetic refereeing.

Ilkley started well and looked on for an early score as both backs and forwards took the game to Tigers. However, one error, due much to a momentary lack of composure, allowed Tigers to break out and launch their own attack on the Ilkley line. The saviour here was the powerful Ilkley scrummaging as Tigers were pushed off the ball.

The inevitable penalty against Ilkley was conceded on the ten metre line but it was missed by centre Trivella as the strong wind blew it wide.

The wet ball made catching difficult. Two chances were spilled out wide but now Ilkley came back strongly.

First Chris Pring almost put Nulty in with a kick into the box. Then Anthony Cadman, taking a good ball engineered from a line after Smith had his first run at Tigers' winger, also looked to find Nulty with a great cross kick which just rolled out two metres short. Nicky Howe made a superb break down the right and cut inside to chip over full-back Pound only to be a fingertip short for the touchdown.

Then Tigers came back. Ian Mackenzie was felled with a great tackle and was unlucky to be penalised for holding on. Full back Pound stepped up for this one and put Tigers 3-0 up against the run of play after 30 minutes of high impact, strength sapping rugby.

Lesser Ilkley sides might have crumbled but these Dalesmen are made of sterner stuff. Ilkley came back well and after penalties were exchanged midfield they put together a tremendous attack.

On the fourth phase Stuart Nesbit went down poleaxed. He took fully four minutes to recover only to find both himself and Tigers' No 8 Wood seeing yellow. How Wood did not get red is a mystery.

With Hutchinson now on in the front row, Mackenzie took time out. Still Ilkley came forward. First Howe went close again with a great break beating four defenders. Then three phases later Cudworth picked up five metres out and went over for what looked like a perfectly good try.

Mr Goldcup appeared to give it but be persuaded by Tigers' talkative scrum half, ex England man David Holmes, that it was a double movement. No score, Tigers' penalty, line cleared.

Half-time stalled the Ilkley onslaught, but at only three points adrift it was anyone's game.

The second period started in similar intense style, both sides looking to get that vital score but neither able to get close.

Nesbit returned and left to allow Hutchinson to stay on the field. Ilkley were now forced to play with 14 as Matthews' impetuosity had him off the field for ten minutes. This could have been a costly altercation, thankfully it wasn't.

Ten minutes in to the half Allan Moffatt stole a Tigers' line deep in Ilkley territory. Cadman cleared to half way. Another line was stolen, the ball went long to Cadman and even longer to Sean Gilbert, missing out Nick Bell.

Gilbert made ten metres and sent an even longer pass out to Nulty who had stayed deep. He came on to the ball beautifully and with two to beat and a couple of yards of wing space to do it in he sped off on an uncatchable 60 metre dash to run round and under the posts, sensibly laying on the conversion for Cadman. It was 7-3 to the Dalesmen with fully 25 minutes to go.

This was as tense as it comes but in all fairness, whilst Tigers pressed with the substantial benefit of Mr Goldcup's penalty count against Ilkley, they only once really threatened a score.

Ilkley's defensive lines are superb these days. This was proven at Ripon, now they had to hold out again and hold they did.

Notable tackles from Bell, Gilbert and Smith contributed to keeping Tigers out of the danger zone. Tigers missed a couple more kicks at goal and then, as the game reached the dying minutes, they were forced to take short penalties.

The sure boot of Cadman had hearts in mouths as touch finders missed the target in the last two minutes but Tigers were beaten. The better side on a difficult day for flowing rugby took those vital two league points to move into second place in this competitive of competitive leagues.

A big crowd is expected for Saturday's encounter with West Park in another four pointer. Kick-off 2.15 pm.

Ilkley Under-9s travelled to Hull Ionians in the semi-final of the Yorkshire Cup. The format of the round was two pools of four, with a final. The winners of which would go on to compete against the winners of the other half draw, taking place at Harrogate.

Ilkley started strongly in their first match against Middlesborough with an excellent try from William Muirhead. Ilkley continued on top throughout the rest of the game but could only consolidate their lead with a try from Robert

It was a different story against the second opposition, Huddersfield. Both teams demonstrated rugby skills and play that made it hard to believe that they only started contact rugby this season. It would have been unfair for one team to emerge the victors, though Ilkley's Josh crane had a try disallowed due to a double movement. So a win became crucial in Ilkley's last match against Otley.