Halifax 66, Keighley 0: The irony of this defeat was that Keighley probably fielded a worse side - albeit stronger in the front row - than when they had had to postpone this Thwaites North East Division One clash three weeks earlier.

The key words there of course are front row, for Keighley didn't have one on February 12, and for that 'crime' they will be deducted two league points.

Keighley coach Martin Whitcombe said: "We would have taken the field with a stronger side just over three weeks ago than the one we fielded on Saturday.

"This time we finished with a third team hooker and a third team prop.

"Unfortunately, because this was originally a non-league weekend, we had six players unavailable, and two more cried off injured during the week.

"But I was really pleased with the way the boys went about it on the field.

"They never stopped trying right up to the death, and that is all you can ask as a coach.

"But it was a physical mismatch - we never had a chance of winning the match.

"This league has become the haves against the have-nots. Whenever clubs like us play Halifax, Darlington or Redcar it is a damage limitation exercise because we cannot compete.

"We only have a pool of 15 or 16 players to pick from and if, say, Gary Davey was having a bad run at full back, we cannot pull in the second team full back because we haven't got that sort of player to bring in."

Halifax coach Kevin McCallion said: "Keighley had some tremendous young players out there.

"I coached fly half Danny McGee for Yorkshire 18s last season, but it was difficult for him to play on this occasion because he was on the back foot all the time."

This was Halifax's 15th league win out of 15, and was sealed in the opening 14 minutes.

Keighley conceded four tries in that time, three to the slight figure of right winger Aaron canning, who proved pacy and elusive all afternoon, and the other to lock Martin Smith.

At that stage, with the visitors 24-0 behind, a century of points looked on the cards.

But Keighley showed defiance and not a little creativity for the next 24 minutes, often keeping play deep in the home half.

It was their own adventure that proved their downfall, however, a pass by full back Gary Davey being intercepted by Halifax fly half Nick O'Connor.

He then ran 55 metres to outpace right winger Matt Gaffney, who really should have caught him, but generally looked out of touch.

Canning's conversion made it 31-0 at half-time, and tries came at regular intervals in the second half.

Flanker Chris Lord strolled through for their sixth in the 44th minute, and then came a penalty try awarded by referee Mike Wells (Yorkshire Society) when Keighley were being pushed back in a scrum.

O'Connor crossed again in the 68th minute, Canning's mazy run brought him his fourth try five minutes later, and right on time No 8 Phil Horton scored a pushover try.

In addition to his four tries, canning landed eight conversions out of ten to total 36 points, and rattled a post with one of his misses.

Victory at York next Saturday will give Halifax the championship.

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