Littleborough 12 Keighley Town 28 - Daz Lynam was once again the architect of Town's victory at Littleborough.
Second row man Darren Walton led from the front and pushed man of the match Lynam all the way. Richard 'Booker' Shaw opened the scoring after taking a short ball from Lynam, Kennedy added the extras.
Sloppy play from the restart resulted in a try for Littleborough but Rocky McNulty backed up a break by Walton to secure a 10-6 half time lead for town.
Injuries to scrum half Neil Kennedy and Paul Scott saw the introduction of Wayne McCombe and Gary Marples, and Littleborough had no answer to their pace. McCombe put Tony Metcalf over in the corner and Marples supported a fine midfield break by Lynam to cross under the posts.
Littleborough responded with a try but Marples put the game beyond them with a great crossfield run to add his second try of the afternoon. McCombe took over the kicking duties and landed two conversions and a penalty to secure the win.
Silsden Park Rangers 30
Ovenden A 54
A Rangers side severely weakened by injuries, work and other commitments, went down fighting against a speedy Ovenden outfit.
Silsden's finest on the day was their three-try Man of the Match Neil Jordan, closely followed by lively scrum half Andy Bowness. Forwards Dean Farrell and Tobi Hooper also put in big performances, and youngsters Matt Bowness and Ash Hancock showed plenty of promise.
Rangers hit their straps immediately, and a massive hit by Farrell in only the second tackle of the game forced a knock on. In the resulting spell of pressure Graeme Sheffield popped up on the wing to power through the tackles and charge over in the corner.
On their next visit to the Ovenden half, Silsden increased their advantage when Mark Kent slipped a nice pass to put Jordan in for the first of his hat-trick. Bowness converted but Ovenden began to settle down. They controlled the game for the middle period of the first half and grabbed three tries and two conversions to lead 16-10.
However, Rangers weren't finished yet and great work from Jordan released Sheffield in midfield, and he found the impressive Ian Robinson at his shoulder who raced in from 25 yards for a fine try. Bowness converted again and then added a penalty to give Rangers an 18-16 interval lead.
Ovenden came out strongest on the restart and soon seized the initiative.
They ran in three further tries to ease into a 34-18 lead, before Silsden hit back again. It was no surprise that Jordan was the man to provide the response, with two more touchdowns.
For his first he tore through from 30 yards and showed some dazzling footwork to almost tie the visiting full back in knots, before rounding him to score beneath the posts. And shortly afterwards the Rangers captain completed his hat-trick when he took advantage of some punishing running from the forwards, to dart in from close range.
Bowness added both conversions to pull it back to 34-30, but then a dubious decision at the other end, when the referee allowed an Ovenden try to stand despite a blatant knock on by the visiting dummy half, effectively sealed the game.
Silsden's heads went down for a spell, allowing Ovenden the opportunity to score three more times and run out comfortable winners.
Tomorrow (Saturday), Rangers travel to Huddersfield to play Moldgreen Marauders (kick off 2.30pm).
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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