Bradford Salem 16, Yarnbury 15: The weekend just gone was the ninth anniversary of Bradford Sal-em's first victory in the Provincial Insurance Cup at Twickenham.

And Salem found the perfect way to celebrate - ending an 11-match losing streak to reach the semi-finals of the UAP Yorkshire Shield.

They now face North East Division One side Redcar next Saturday, who have former Leeds and Great Britain rugby league star Garry Schofield at fly-half and former Leeds player Warren Wilson at outside centre.

"The last time we beat Yarnbury was in one of our Twickenham-winning years - 1991-92," said Salem coach Steve Dunn. "But that didn't really bother these players. Most of them are too young to remember it - apart from the older ones like Neil Klenk."

Yarnbury may have had 14 players unavailable - five were on a stag weekend - but they desperately wanted to win, and were left to rue five missed penalties and a conversion.

A delighted Dunn added: "We ran them off their feet in the last 30 minutes - we took them apart."

Yarnbury's chairman of selectors Alan Rigby said: "We are all very, very disappointed, but we would have lasted the pace better if we hadn't had so many second strings in.

"On balance, although we had the chances to win, we feel that Salem deserved it on their second half performance. They were more up for it than us.

Yarnbury may have had a lot of second teamers in, but they still looked tasty enough in the opening half hour in both the pack and backs to have won.

Their fly-half Steve Galbraith missed a first-minute penalty, but they had scored two tries by the 16th minute.

Scrum-half Andy Cowley went in at pace in the third minute after full back Steve Riley had come into the line, Galbraith converting.

Centre Simon brier then galloped in after a loose ball had been hacked into his midriff.

Joe Simpson, who did well in an unaccustomed scrum-half role, landed a penalty in reply, but the rest of the half centred largely on referee Paul Taylor.

He handed out yellow cards to Simpson (high tackle), and Yarnbury's hooker Martin Booth (stamping) and prop Jonathon Stephenson.

Taylor must take some of the blame for the mass brawl that preceded Stephenson's booking.

He should have blown up much earlier, and that would hopefully have stopped much of the punching and pushing.

Yarnbury's acting captain Sean Craven and Salem skipper Mark Ramsbottom were both warned that any further serious incidents would result in a red card, and the second half passed without major incident.

Two Simpson penalties clawed back the margin to 12-9, only for a well-struck Riley penalty to again give Yarnbury a six-point lead.

But the visitors from Horsforth were tiring by now, and there was no better demonstration of that than the try scored by Salem hooker Simon Markey in the 75th minute.

He took a tap penalty himself from eight metres out and drove at the line, and Yarnbury were unable to stop him grounding the ball.

Simpson's conversion gave the home side the lead for the first time, and they were never in danger of relinquishing it as play was then concentrated in and around Yarnbury's 22.

Bill Marshall

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.