Baildon 17, Old Rishworthians 15: Baildon continued their Harry Houdini act in Thwaites Yorkshire Division Three with this victory.

Having beaten Hessle with an injury-time try on January 15 to open their league account, the Jenny Laners performed their escapology again - this time with an injury-time penalty.

Baildon have now won four matches, and must win their remaining two and hope Old Rishworthians lose their last three if they are to avoid dropping into the revamped Yorkshire Four North.

"We're still hanging by the slenderest of threads," admitted Baildon coach Kenny Pollard afterwards.

"We played patchily, but it was the best we have scrummaged all season - Rishworthians had some big lads out there - and Dave Wilde was brilliant at the end."

Wilde struck the deciding kick well. But skipper James Dawson, with the score at 15-14 in the Halifax club's favour, sensibly decided not to tell Wilde that there were only 30 seconds left!

There was barely time to restart play before referee Bob Browell blew for full time.

Baildon made a terrible start, Wilde knocking on from the kick-off in his own 22, and being made to pay when prop Andy Wickham scored from the resulting scrum, skipper Toby Wood converting.

The home side then got their act together and worked their way upfield, left winger Richard Moorhouse going in for a try in the eighth minute.

With fly half Matt Williams threatening to cut loose in midfield for Baildon, they took the lead in the 27th minute via a Wilde penalty into a strong cross breeze.

Browell gave yellow cards to both Rishworthians' prop Neil Ainley (persistent infringement) and their No 8 Andy Cottam (dissent), but Baildon must have been glad to reach half-time 8-7 ahead as the visitors rallied.

Rishworthians began the second half strongly, skipper Wood getting an early try from a planned blindside move.

Wilde then landed a penalty to narrow the Halifax club's lead to 12-11, and with the visitors being pulled up more than once for high tackles, another Wilde penalty gave Baildon a 14-12 advantage in the 67th minute.

However, for most of the half it looked as if Rishworthians would win, and that rang even truer when Wood's penalty gave them the lead back at 15-14.

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