Bees coach Andy Bemrose confessed to being well satisfied after losing 33-15 to Otley - his side putting in a fine performance against opposition three divisions higher.

He said: "Both sides were missing a player or two, but having said that I am quite happy with what we did, and it was a good workout for both sides."

What will concern Bemrose, however, was how his team lost the ball too often going into contact, and he admitted: "We did talk about that at half-time.

"But on the other hand we won't come up against as strong a side as Otley all season, and I am really looking forward to the start of our league campaign on September 6."

Otley coach Peter Clegg said: "We were disjointed from the start as we had a first-team back-row and a first-team second-row missing, but Bradford were good enough to put us under pressure."

Otley took the lead in this Granville Clark Memorial Trophy clash with a try by centre Neil Law after just 113 seconds.

Fly half Simon Binns converted and their second try also came after the Bees had been penalised, prop Chris Fulman getting on the end of a pack drive in the tenth minute.

Between the tries, Binns had to leave the field with dizziness after being on the wrong end of a high tackle.

A half-break by the Bees' Stuart Dixon helped to put his team into a promising position in the 20th minute, but the line-out that followed came to nothing.

Fellow centre Phil Greaves, playing against his former club, showed his strength down the left in the 28th minute, and five minutes later he was on hand to finish a break by skipper Tom Rhodes.

No 8 Chris Halau'ifa was on the end of a Phil Greaves break five minutes into the second half to make it 12-10.

Experienced scrum half Dave Scully profited from some weak Bees tackling on Law to go over in the 50th minute, full back Philip Howell converting.

A cross-kick then embarrassed stand-in Otley left winger Tony Greig.

He seemed favourite to reach the ball first, but Halau'ifa snatched it and strolled in, fly half Rhodes uncharacteristically missing his third kick of the night.

The margin was back to 19-15 now, but Otley, clearly stronger in the scrum - the Bees deliberately left out former Otley props David Hall and Ronnie Kelly - and better organised in the line-out had the better of the last 20 minutes.

Prop Justin Wring went over for Otley in the 67th minute as the home pack drove towards the line again, and they added a pushover try nine minutes later, No 8 Scott Connor getting the touchdown. Scully converted both tries.