Crossfield 54, Keighley Albion 10

A depleted Keighley Albion crossed over the pennines for the second week running and again suffered a heavy defeat.

The Keighley side have found the National League an extremely competative competition this season to say the least. Nontheless they have put up some creditable performances so far but the long hard campaign is beginning to take its toll as they conceded over 50 points for the second week running against two sides they ran very close at home.

The first half was virtually one way traffic as the home side ran in six tries, Albions only reply coming from a Peter Jeffries try.

The Keighley side tried to raise their game in the second half, no one working harder than skipper Wayne Smith who lead by example with his strong running earning him Albions Man of the Match from Crossfields coach Bob Eccles the former Warrington second row forward.

With several regulars missing from the Albion line up, Gary Baxter stepped up from the second team to take his place on the bench. He made his Conference debut midway through the second half and celebrated with a well taken try in the corner. Simon Kelk added a peach of a conversion from the touchline, this was Albions final score of the day as Crossfields showed little mercy as they piled on the points.

This Saturday Albion entertain Wakefield side Eastmoor Dragons at Crossflatts in their final home match of the season. Albion are holding a sponsor's day throughout the match with refreshements provided for all the clubs sponsors this season.

n Albion are holding a "Bucking Bronco" afternoon at the 101 club on Easter Sunday. The club has hired an electronic Bronco on which would-be cowboys can show off their riding skills, everyone is welcome. Doors open 12 "high noon."

West Bowling A 20

Silsden Park Rangers 30

Loose forward Neil Jordan was the recipient of some unnecessary attention from the Bradford outfit, but Rangers skipper continued to lead his team admirably, and it was fitting that he should plunge over from close range for the match clinching try, as the Cobbydalers pulled off a rare win at West Bowling.

Silsden were holding a 24-20 lead late in the second half when hooker Dave Arnold took them close with a typically elusive dart, enabling courageous Jordan to squeeze in from dummy half to seal the points.

Earlier, joint men of the match Pat Illingworth and Mark Adams had paved the way for a vital Silsden win. First, Illingworth sold an outrageous dummy to open the Bowling defence, and stride through for a fine try which Adams goaled. Then a neat Arnold - Adams link up ended with free scoring Adams stretching out to touchdown. However Wests conjured up two tries, one of them hotly disputed, and a penalty, to lead 14-12 at the break, slightly against the run of play.

On the restart, Illingworth capped another top notch performance by charging in for his second try, only for Wests to reply in kind and move 20-18 ahead. Rangers stuck to their task though, and with Andy Bowness directing operations from scrum half, Jim Coldwell, Ed Billing and Mark Claydon pot Bowling on the back foot with some great running.

Meanwhile Arnold and Bob Harrison put in big defensive stints, and Wayne Hudson made an important contribution off the bench. Inevitably, Bowling's defence cracked again, and Adams spotted a gap to go over for his ninth try in four games. Adams himself converted, and then added his fifth goal to Jordan's late clincher, to ensure Silsden took another big step along the path to promotion.

Silsden take an Easter break this weekend, before commencing their defence of the Keighley Cup with a tie against Keighley Celtic on April 10th.

Keighley Celtic 7

Shelf Lions 58

Celtic's troubles continue as they crashed at home to inform Shelf Lions.

Shelf took advantage straight from the start with some woeful tackling from Celtic and went 10-0 up in as many minutes, a penalty and a drop goal from Kennedy settled Celtic down as they slowly began to take control of the game but again it was failure to convert this pressure into points that again let them down and two converted tries before half time put Shelf back in control.

The signs were ominous from the restart as Celtic failed to fire and Shelf again scored two quick tries and this set the scene for a convincing win and the league title, it wasn't until late in the half that Kennedy put Robinson over in the corner for Celtics consolation try.

Anwar and Patterson worked well on attack and Kennedy again had a good defensive stint for Celtic.

Keighley Celtic 'A' 7

Sowerby Spartans 'A' 58

It was a similar story for Celtics second team although only fielding 11 men a much braver effort with another M.O.M. for Partridge for his attacking efforts. The younger Patterson was the scorer and Parker was again on the score sheet with a conversion and a field goal.

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