Rugby Union: Baildon 29, Hessle 27.

Baildon launched the most remarkable comeback I have seen in 24 seasons of covering the sport to secure an unlikely Thwaites Yorkshire Division Three win.

Few would have bet on the home side when they trailed 24-0 with 20 minutes to.

After all, this was the same Baildon side who had lost all their previous 13 league matches.

With man of the match Chris Smithies acting as a catalyst after switching from flanker to centre, Baildon scored five tries, the last coming in the fifth minute of injury time, to notch their first win of the season in the most dramatic fashion.

Skipper and scrum half James Dawson said: "At 24-0 behind I thought we were heading for another loss, but we just showed we had a lot of heart and belief and the adrenalin started to flow.

"Ultimately winning to us meant more than to them. It was unbelievable."

In the first half Baildon's injury list seemed to have taken another turn for the worse when fly half Matt Williams and hooker Simon Gillson both went to the blood-bin.

But Williams couldn't come back after his second setback of the half - a cut underneath his eye.

Hessle looked the more determined side and got two tries via their lively prop Wayne Foster.

He took advantage of some poor defending to score his first in the 27th minute.

Kristian Lee's conversion made it 7-0, and six minutes later Foster was over again.

Baildon, who had needed the first score after the interval, instead conceded two more, both initiated by right winger Richard 'Alfie' Garnett.

He drove the ball in, and second phase possession led to Baildon's defence being stretched this way and that before centre Guy Atkinson scored in the 44th minute.

Six minutes later Foster completed his hat-trick down the right wing, lock Stuart Louth adding a good conversion.

It was then that Baildon removed the injured Simon Glenn in the centre, Smithies moving to centre and Watson coming back on.

They finally got on the scoreboard in the 57th minute, Gary Strauss getting a pushover try.

Two minutes later Hessle conceded another try, Dawson's quick tap penalty resulted in fly half Ben Dobbs crossing.

In the 66th minute Baildon made another significant substitution, Jim Hutton coming on for Matt Waddington in the second row.

By the 69th minute the gap was down to seven points when Gillson touched and Dave Wilde converted.

Hessle made a couple of substitutions of their own - to slow the game down as much as anything - and seemed to have steadied the ship when Louth's penalty made it 27-17 in the 75th minute.

But back came Baildon, flanker Jimmy Lyons reaching out to touch down, Wilde converting.

Then, with Hessle willing referee Jonathan Hill to blow the final whistle, Baildon's left winger Richard Moorhouse crossed for the winning try.

His face was a picture as he turned round to celebrate, and one can only wonder what the thoughts were then of Hessle's No 8 Mark Fenwick - a former Baildon player.

bill marshall

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