NEWBURY'S attempts to go through, round and over Wharfedale met with firm resistance at the Avenue where, just like Swampy and his chums, the Greens dug in for the duration and showed no intention of being moved.

With a Threshfield bypass looking fairly unlikely in the next Millennium and beyond, Newbury would probably still have preferred a detour after meeting the full force of the Green Machine head on.

Not that it was all one-way traffic. There was little to choose between the sides for almost an hour as the two packs pounded into each other like shopaholics rehearsing for the January sales.

Eventually, because they had the game's outstanding individual in fly half David Pears and their collective desire to win was a shade stronger than the Berkshire boys, Wharfedale finally surged ahead to make it six wins from the last eight league games and move up two more places in the table, to ninth. But things are still looking very tight in the danger zone.

The visitors had caused an upset the previous week by beating league leaders Manchester 17-14 and they arrived at Threshfield clearly intent on a repeat of their comprehensive 33-11 victory there last season. Indeed, Wharfedale had never previously beaten the Blues, drawing 15-15 at Monks Lane in January and being beaten 18-10 there in November.

Newbury's current coach is Kevin Bowring, the former Welsh national team supremo, and on this occasion he probably thought that his side had taken the wrong turning in Leeds and been ambushed somewhere in the Rhondda Valley, such was the 'hywel' and fire displayed by Clarty's Dales dragons.

Wharfedale made three changes to the side which had performed so well against Nottingham the previous week. Dan Harrison was preferred at scrum half to David Whitfield, Richard Lancaster returned from injury to claim the loose head spot from John Metcalfe and Paul Evans got the nod over Dennis Wood in the second row. Their opponents included Irish international winger Tyrone Howe, New Zealand Sevens fly half Justin Poihippi and former Wales under-21 Craig Davies.

Wharfedale's pack was first into its stride and after Hedley Verity had tested Newbury with a typical corkscrewing burst, Pears punished their indiscipline in the tackle to open the scoring with a well struck penalty.

It remained thrust and parry until the 14th minute when Newbury's former Wakefield full back Tom Holloway burst through several half tackles and the Irish whippet Howe came inside to glide over for a try which Poihippi converted.

Wharfedale left winger Ben Whitfield is a relative newcomer to this level but for the remainder of the half he showed the qualities his Second XV mentor John Canny has raved about. Excused of blame for Howe's try, he twice stopped the same player with thumping tackles and made positive use of the few passes he received from colleagues, running straight and having the strength to wait for support when caught.

Assistance usually arrived in the shape of back row trio Russ Buckroyd, Hedley Verity and Charlie Vyvyan and their tussle with the visiting 6, 7 and 8 began to look like extreme rules wrestling.

Being Cumbrian, Pears proved pretty adept at grappling too and his defence around set pieces was as solid as Skiddaw (for our internet readers that's a rocky hill twixt Threshfield and Skipton). The score moved along when Poihippi landed his only penalty opportunity of the day and Pears slotted two from two to make it 10-9 to the visitors at the break.

With defences on top for the next 20 minutes, opinion was that a single score, probably from a mistake, would win the game.

Newbury undoubtedly had the better possession in this period, although Wharfedale had the better chances, notably through Buckroyd and centre Andy Hodgson.

As the game entered the final quarter, Wharfedale noticeably increased their effort and they gained the lead when full back Neil Heseltine launched an attack down the right and winger Steve McManus joined in to slip a reverse pass to the ever-alert Pears, who waltzed over for his fourth try of the season, which he converted to make it 16-10.

Newbury brought on replacements to try to salvage the game and one of them, John Kingdom, was yellow carded almost immediately for a late tackle on Pears. He might have been excused for uttering Mike Burton's immortal words: "It couldn't have been that late ref, I've only been on the pitch two minutes!"

The Greens' forwards were clearly not in the mood for such nonsense and took play to the Newbury posts, where a Pears drop goal seemed to be on the cards.

Scrum half Dan Harrison was alert to the situation but was tackled in possession and could only ship out a Barnes Wallis type of pass. As the ball bounced towards him, Pears decided against trying to pick it up but instead turned it into a real dam buster by hacking it through the rapidly advancing Newbury defence.

As he raced after it for a certain touch down, Davies impeded him and referee Chris Seeley had little option but to award a penalty try, taking Pears official contribution to 18 points and a total of 160 points since joining 14 games ago.

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