Skipton 13 Pocklington 8

ALTHOUGH Skipton fully deserved to win this game, at the end they were rather anxious as Pocklington staged a fight back, which, as in the previous week, was entirely due to Skipton's failure to convert chances into points.

A bad start saw the kick-off sail directly into touch and Pocklington had the early balance of play. However, on six minutes, Skipton had the chance to take the lead when the visitors fell offside at a ruck, but Adam Oldfield missed a fairly straightforward kick.

Following a good drive from No 8, Mark Davison, Pocklington were again adjudged offside and this time Oldfield made no mistake. After 14 minutes, though, the visitors equalised when Frank Walker was caught offside and compounded the problem by playing the ball on the floor to allow visiting fly-half Robin Jackson the chance to kick a penalty.

After 23 minutes Skipton scored a well-worked try when they ran the ball out of defence, with Ian Sneddon, George Smithson and Paul Lacy all prominent, and when the ball was quickly switched from left wing to right, Mike Beech ghosted in at the corner, Oldfield narrowly missing the conversion.

Paul Lacy had another good run, followed by a chip ahead and was obstructed, but again a straightforward penalty chance skewed wide.

Oldfield made a quick break, but the support knocked on, Hamish Burns took a quick penalty and Beech went over to score but was pulled back for a forward pass, and in the dying seconds Beech again crossed the line, but the pass from Neil King was well forward.

So despite plenty of possession and pressure, half-time was reached with Skipton only 8-3 in front.

In the first minute of the second-half Pocklington had a penalty chance for not releasing, but their kick also went wide.

They had a spell of pressure, but a well-organised Skipton defence held them at bay, leaving them to have two long- range drops at goal, neither of which threatened to find the target.

On 49 minutes Burns left the field with a damaged thumb, being replaced by Mike Richards and then Alan Newhouse gave way to his brother Graham in the second-row.

On the hour mark a constant spell of pressure from Skipton saw Oldfield short of the power needed to reach the line, but Davison was on hand to take the ball from him and score in the corner. Oldfield though was unlucky to see the long-range conversion drop under the bar.

Robbie King made way for Geoff Reid-Hughes as Skipton continued to hold the upper hand. On 76 minutes Walker had an off the ball altercation with the Pocklington hooker and as a result both were sin-binned.

Pocklington's skipper and No 8 Dean Smith was held up over the line as they searched for score to get themselves back into the game.

Referee Ron Needham, who had exasperated the players for most of the afternoon, then awarded a rather dubious penalty just five metres from the line which was quickly tapped by the visiting scrum-half Kevin Bowling, who shot over for an unconverted try.

This left Pocklington within one score of Skipton and six minutes of injury time still to play, but Skipton safely negotiated the added time to register a welcome victory.