ANY hopes of Skipton repeating their Yorkshire Silver Trophy run of last year, when they reached the final, were ended at Baildon in the first round, when they were beaten for the second week in a row

Any unbiased spectator watching the game would have come away wondering why Skipton ended up losers.

With superior possession and territorial factors in their favour and producing a more varied and wider range of attacking options than their opponents on the day, it is difficult to assess where they went wrong.

In short, it was that Baildon scored from the majority of the few chances that they had, several of which resulted from Skipton errors rather than their own constructed play and they had the added bonus of a goal kicker who converted all of their six tries.

Skipton won the toss and elected to play up the slope and into the breeze and were soon under early pressure from their opponents but good tackles by Sharpe, Atkinson and King halted any progress.

The Skipton pack demonstrated how formidable they can be in the set scrums driving their opponents backwards in the first few scrums, a factor that they maintained throughout the entire game.

The exploitation of the short side at the line-outs, something that the Reds should have realised after last week's game, led to Baildon's first try when from a line-out just on half way they managed to break away down the blind side and score in the corner.

The Reds mounted several attacking moves through Sneddon and Atkinson and the support play from the pack kept the pressure on. Skipton continued their onslaught and only good tackles kept Smithson, Atkinson and Porter out.

However, a quickly taken penalty took Baildon from their own 22 down into the Skipton half and good inter-passing between the two centres eventually resulted in another try in the extreme left corner which was superbly converted.

Oldfield reduced the lead with a penalty shortly afterwards and the Reds in spite of the scoreline looked much the better side. Several attacking moves could have brought scores but somehow Baildon managed to keep their line intact.

Alas Baildon broke clear on three more occasions to add three more converted tries in the half.

Turning round with a 35-3 deficit seemed an unjust reflection on Skipton's first half performance as well as a daunting task facing them in the second half.

But Skipton's second half effort was superb. They pinned Baildon in their own half and only on two occasions did the home team venture into their visitor's half.

Within a minute Sharpe scored for the Reds after an excellent scrum drive and good support work. Oldfield converted.

Oldfield and Atkinson both came close to a score before Phillip added a further try for his team, the platform for which was a massive drive by the forwards at a five yard scrum against the put-in and a powerful tackle by Atkinson on the fullback trying to clear.

The Skipton eight were very much on top and Baildon were beginning to panic.

Winthrop touched down after his pack had once again driven relentlessly forward at a five metre scrum.

Over-eagerness, some misfortune and resolute defence from Baildon kept the Reds at bay for a while until King swept tacklers aside to score an unconverted try.

With time rapidly running out Skipton continued to maintain their overall superiority but could not add further scores to their tally.

A lapse of concentration allowed the Baildon centre, the architect of his team's scoring chances in the first half, collected a loose ball and elusively ran through and around the Skipton defence to score the sixth converted try in the last minute for his side.

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