WEST PARK 16

LYMM 10

WEST Park Bramhope have undoubtedly played better this season than they did last Saturday when they beat Lymm in an uninspirng game at The Sycamores.

Nevertheless they did enough to gain two valuable points to help them maintain their challenge for promotion from North Division Two. They are in third position behind Driffield and Bradford and Bingley, while Lymm are in the lower half of the table.

West Park have now gained the double over Lymm, who were visiting The Sycamores for the first time. When the two teams met at Lymm in November West Park won 19-10.

A cold raw afternoon kept the attendance down to about 50. The pitch was damp, a little greasy but in good condition for this time of the year.

Although the match was disappointing, mainly due to many mistakes made by both sides, West Park had the edge over the visitors where their forwards were much better in the line-outs and set scrums.

The amount of ball gained by West Park should really have been turned into points but unfortunately their players made a number of mistakes including poor handling of the ball, dropped passes and giving the ball away by kicking it down the throats of the visiting players. Fortunately for West Park the Lymm players did likewise.

For most of the match West Park were never in any danger of losing, or so it seemed, except in the 58th minute when their 10-0 lead was reduced to 10-7.

There was also a period in the dying minutes of the match when they were put under pressure as Lymm launched a couple of attacks but the home defence held firm.

Jon Hall was once again a reliable full-back for West Park and he picked up 11 points from a conversion and three penalties. His kicking for touch often helped relieve pressure. Then right-winger Andy Potter showed he could be a danger if given the opportunity; locks Gareth Emanuel and Steve Spark won some good line-out ball and No 8 Tim Pearce was often on hand to clean-up loose ball and made a few determined runs.

Within four minutes West Park had taken the lead when scrum-half Glen Kilvington received the ball following a successful line-out and went in for a try which was converted by full-back Jon Hall. Eight minutes later West Park lost the services of flanker Ralph Bennett, who suffered an injury to his ribs and was replaced by Mark Weston.

West Park had a chance to increase their lead in the 17th minute but Hall missed what must have been a fairly easy kick for him. Shortly afterwards West Park were twice penalised for not throwing the ball in straight at two line-outs. Hall kicked a penalty for West Park (25 mins) to give his side a 10-0 lead which they held until half-time.

Lymm's hooker Martin Keenigan had to leave the field with a cut cheek and was replaced by Simon Harrison.

At half-time it was 10-0 to Park.

During the early part of the second-half Lymm launched a couple of attacks but the home defence held firm, in particular No 8 Tim Pearce, who worked hard in the line-outs and loose mauls.

Full-back Hall often relieved pressure with some fine kicking. In the 50th minute Keenigan returned to the field after treatment.

Lymm opened their account when a long pass from fly-half Chris Elliot found Martin Bower, who had moved up in support and the Lymm full-back cut through a surprised and weak West Park defence to score a try under the posts (55 mins).

Elliot added the conversion points to make it 10-7. Hall then kicked two penalties in the 66th and 76th minutes before Elliot landed a 77th minute penalty for Lymm.

This win means West Park now have 16 points, four points behind the two leaders. Lymm have no dropped to third position from the bottom.

Otley SARACENS 28

WEST PARK BRAMHOPE 13

SARACENS had a much changed side due to injuries and unavailability and six players moved up from the Tongans side for this game against local rivals West Park.

Park made a lively start but when they lost the ball in midfield Saracens moved it out quickly and Richard Barlow made a lot of ground before passing inside to Stuart Langley who scored near the posts for Chris Quinn to convert.

Boosted by this success Saracens continued to move the ball at every opportunity and slick handling by forwards and backs saw Langley add his second try and again Quinn converted.

Great play by the pack took play deep into the Park half and from the resultant scrum Andy Hargreaves picked up to feed Richard Leighton who was filling in at scrum-half.

He put Craig Jackson away but the cover got him short of the line but not before he had shipped an inside pass to Barlow who scored in the corner. Park, who had the edge in the line-outs, struck back strongly and it was no surprise when they engineered an overlap in the Otley 22 for their right winger to score wide out.

Keeping up the pressure they reduced the arrears further with a penalty. On their next attack the Park left winger got away and beat the cover to make it 19-13 at half-time.

Play became very scrappy in the second-half not helped by a greasy surface followin heavy overnight rain. However, as the game moved into the last quarter Saracens regained a measure of control.

They built up a lot of pressure on the Park line and although they could not pierce a strong Park defence the visitors conceded a number of penalties as they strayed off-side and Quinn converted three to set the seal on a hard-earned win for Otley.

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