Wharfedale 32 North Ribblesdale 7

there could not have been a better ending to Wharfedale's best-ever season than enjoying a game of long-standing friendly rivalry with neighbours from over the watershed writes Ian Douglass.

Wharfedale were shorn of a flock of county players, while Ribb were short of strength in the back row.

Nevertheless the blend available produced a game much in character with previous encounters.

Ribblesdale have played the role of perpetual underdogs in recent decades but have always managed to ruffle feathers of their higher profile neighbour. But those who thought the gap might have widened to an unbridgeable ravine were to be proved wrong. Throughout Ribb were abrasive, fiercely competitive, constructive, disruptive, creative and buoyed by a rising tide of self-belief.

Although Ribb began with relish, it was Wharfedale who took the lead with a Jonathan Davies penalty, resulting from a driving maul. As the game unfolded this tactic was to prove Wharfedale's most consistent weapon against which Ribb had no effective antidote.

The tight forwards, such as Neil Dickinson, Richard Lancaster and Paul Evans, inured to the art in the heat of league rugby, revelled in making might inroads.

However, Ribb fared much better in the lineouts where the watchfulness and techniques of Phil Pawson and Dean Stacey provided a fruitful afternoon.

Many thunderous tackles were made on the Wharfedale attackers, preliminary rumblings to the atmospheric pyrotechnics which dramatised the second half contest.

Ribb were especially keen to see that their former favourite Craig Eccleston did not run free as Wharfedale's inability to rack up a succession of first half scores resulted from handling errors and a succession of turnovers.

Sean Gilbert was unlucky not to take a pass from Jonathan Richards, who broke free in the most productive incision so far, before Wharfedale's first quarter supremacy was to end with a clinically executed try as, from a centre field scrum, Davies burst into the line from fullback to score.

Thereafter the Greens suffered some uncomfortable moments. A desperate scramble on their own line followed a charged down kick and then a hurried kick to touch just kept Ribb at bay.

Neil Gemmell, the subtle architect of Ribb's good play, provided a measured amalgam of the expansive and the expedient but, unfortunately for Ribb, during this period of ascendancy, he pulled two penalty attempts wide.

Hurried, ill-directed kicks were gleefully collected by Stuart Evans and returned as Ribb enjoyed field dominance.

It was not until close on half time that the old maul routine delivered Wharfedale an important buffer as Tony Jackson forced his way over for Davies to convert.

An indifferent start to the second half allowed Evans another charge down the stand side and a flash of lightning illuminated the faces of the illustrious past players and patriarchs from "over t'hill" as they clamoured their approbation.

The unrelenting deluge which followed turned the surface into something resembling the paddy fields of the Mekong delta as the Greens pack revelled in the conditions.

From one charge Dan Harrison snapped up a recycled ball to plunge over, Davies converting. Handling grew ever more difficult but Sam Allen latched on to a pop pass and then Sean Gilbert almost brilliantly swept up from the ruck, only for the ball to shoot from his grasp like a jet propelled lozenge.

As an albatross hovered ominously overhead, Daniel Whitfield was replaced at centre by Russ Buckroyd just before Heseltine became the other half back to profit from the churning maul to force his way over, a trick soon to be repeated by Allen. Those two unconverted tries stretched Wharfedale's lead to 32-0.

Continued good ball from the lineout, vigorous rucking and the ability to hustle Wharfedale into handling errors allowed Ribb to make ground in midfield.

A period of pressure was a prelude to a much-deserved Ribb try. Wharfedale were forced to hack the ball away after a Ribb attack floundered and there followed a flash of Jonathan Richards individual flair as he picked up, pirouetted and wrong footed the defence to light up the gloom with a magnificent try. Gemmell converted.

The final stages showed how even the game had become and ended down a rousing tunnel of mutual respect.

Half-time: 15-0

Wharfedale: J Davies; A Mounsey, S Gilbert, D Whitfield (R Buckroyd 59 mins), C Eccleston; N Heseltine, D Harrison; R Lancaster, J Ogden, N Dickinson (C Greenwood 63 mins), A Capstick, P Evans, S Allen, P Hargreaves, T Jackson.

North Ribblesdale: G Evans; S Spensley, J Richards, S Evans, J Hughes; S Towns, N Gemmell; J Thwaite, P Humphreys, A Bradley, D Stacey, P Pawson, C Montford, C Wallbank, J Mills.

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