County Championship

League Three

Yorkshire 50 Staffordshire 0

A Yorkshire side captained by Wharfedale's youth rugby development officer John Lawn and including three other Greens, Russ Buckroyd, Hedley Verity and David Lister, proved far too strong for a disappointing Staffordshire outfit, writes Keith Lewis.

The atmosphere at a near-deserted Cross Green on Saturday, with Yorkshire's opposition turned out in multi-coloured shorts and a combination of several sets of shirts, might have seemed to some a far cry from the halcyon days of county rugby, but nothing could detract from this eight-try demolition which was inspired by Yorkshire's man of the match Buckroyd and his back row partner Verity.

The Wharfedale flankers revelled in the kind of running opportunities which rarely come in National Division One and Buckroyd provided try-scoring passes on no fewer than four occasions. Hooker Lawn and second row Lister provided the lineout ball when required and generally typified the hard-working approach of the White Rose outfit.

With one game remaining, versus Leicestershire at Syston on April 24, Yorkshire are now virtually assured of a quarter-final appearance on May 1. The final is at Twickenham on May 22.

Yorkshire scorers were: tries, S Jones, Middlesbrough, S Smith, Otley, two, L Penns, Ionians, R Petytt, Bradford and Bingley, M Wolff, Sandal, G Cassidy, Otley, A Day, Old Crossleyans; conversions, P Taylor, Harrogate, five.

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