Cleckheaton 12, Old Brodleians 20: There was no happy return home for Cleckheaton lock Dave Ingham yesterday - not in a playing sense anyway.
The 22-year-old from Gomersal scored a second-half try as the hosts secured a 12-3 lead, but they conceded three tries in the last 20 minutes as Old Brodleians hit back for a fine victory in their traditional Boxing Day club fixture.
Former Bradford Grammar School pupil Ingham, who represented York-shire at aged 15, 16 and 18 levels, as well as at under-20 level, played six matches for Cleckheaton's first team last season on his return from Australia, having play-ed Down Under and watched the Lions.
But the 6ft 4in second row has been figuring for Richmond's second team since moving to London as a senior associate auditor for Deloitte & Touche.
The son of Cleckheaton Golf Club professional Mike explained today: "The problem is, with my job, I don't really have much time for training.
"I would have to be at Richmond twice a week for 7pm and I wouldn't get back home until 10.30pm so it is difficult, but it is nice to get a runaround with their second team. Mind you, I don't know how long I will stay with them because I am not happy there, but I do have quite a lot of mates there from my university days at Durham."
Ingham added: "I am not as fit as I used to be, but that isn't because I have had too much turkey - Christmas was postponed in our house until last night when my sister came home!"
As for yesterday's match, Ingham said: "I thought we would just about hold Old Brodleians out, but we made a few slips and gave them some soft tries, although they were lucky with one of them."
A first-minute try by centre Jonathan Ward gave Cleckheaton a 5-3 half-time lead, Brods replying with a Chris Green penalty in injury time, and Ingham's try was converted by fly half Stuart Crampton to make it 12-3. But the visitors from Hipperholme rallied with tries by Gareth Standeven, David Spivey and Adam Jackson, Green converting one.
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