Otley 13

LIVERPOOL ST H 7

OTLEY despite giving away advantage on a number of occasions held on to the bitter end to gain a narrow win over Liverpool St Helens in a Jewson League Division One match at Cross Green on Saturday.

Although this was not a convincing win it is to Otley's credit they never gave up for had they done so then Liverpool would undoubtedly have stepped in to collect the points.

Otley have now won two of their opening three matches.

At the moment they are not playing well particularly in the pack where they are just not winning enough ball in the line-outs and they are a little slow in recycling the ball when they have it. Another minus appears to be their inability to keep the ball when they have worked hard to win it. All these ingredients make life a little hard for them as they found out against a Liverpool St Helens team who were not particularly inspiring themselves. Nevertheless they gave Otley a fright and made them fight hard right up to the final whistle. In fact Liverpool made one last ditch effort towards the end of the game when they launched an attack on the Otley line. Only some fine defensive work by the home side kept them out.

After a shaky start during which Liverpool dominated play Otley did well to pick themselves up and come back to win the match.

They were unfortunate to be without the line-out specialist lock Paul Williams, who was sidelined with a neck injury; winger William Darby, out with a knee injury; winger Simon Smith, on a business course, hooker Paul Kelly, who was attending a wedding and flanker Phil Griffin, who was unavailable.

Otley certainly missed Williams' jumping in the line-outs and Kelly's drive and determination in the pack. They were also frustrated by the offside tactics of some of the Liverpool players, particularly lock Martin Boyd, who was often offside in the loose play. For some reason referee Mr R Mullis (RFU/Gloucester Society), did not penalise him or the other players.

This was not an attractive game to watch and not one which will be remembered by the attendance of about 250 spectators, except that Otley picked up two valuable points.

After withstanding a great deal of pressure during the opening 10-minutes Otley, against the run of play, took the lead when full-back Dan Clappison kicked a penalty (13 mins) which was awarded when Liverpool formed an obstruction during a forward drive. Twelve minutes later he put them further ahead with a second penalty.

At this stage of the game Otley were looking a little more confident and Hartley, Hawkins and again Hartley linked up well in a superb move to send winger Ryan Duckett on his way. The new signing from West Park Bramhope broke through the Liverpool defence only to be stopped by weight of numbers.

Otley were again on the attack when Liverpool centre John Aby intercepted a pass from fly-half Simon Hawkins and then he outstripped the Otley backs to score a try under the posts which was converted by right-winger Paul Brett to give Liverpool a surpsie 6-7 lead at half-time.The second half was keenly fought with neither side giving very much away. Both sides made mistakes but neither side were able to capitalise on them.

In the 57th minute Otley took the lead. Clappison missed with a penalty attempt but Liverpool's full-back Simon Humphreys ran the ball out and his pass was judged to be forward.

Otley won a scrum near to the Liverpool line and Lafaele Filipo obtained the ball and ran for the line but was stopped and when the home side won a maul the ball eventually reached centre Wayne Hartley who ran home for a try near the posts. Clappison added the goal points and Otley had regained the lead, a lead they managed to hold onto until the final whistle.

Prop Steve Rice was a tower of strength in the pack where skipper Neil Hartley showed plenty of determination and Jonathan Burke worked hard. Whenever Filipo, their Samoan forward, received the ball there were often two or three Libverpool players marking him.

Ian Clappison was cool at full-back; Mark Billington determined in the centre and winger Ryan Duckett gave the home spectators a glimpse of what a good player he could be if he gets a good supply of the ball.

Carl Smith, a 24 year-old full-back from Keighley and Ben Greaves, a 19 year-old half-back from Bradford and Bingley have joined the club.

Chris Stott, injured while playing for the Saracens against Ilkley, on the opening Saturday of the season, is unlikely to return to action before he leaves for a work assignment in Vancouver, Canada, in two weeks.

Otley's third former players re-union is to be held in the clubhouse at Cross Green on Saturday November 28 (12 noon).

Keith Carroll is organising a coach for supporters to the match at Manchester on October 10. Further details can be obtained by ringing 0113-2503033.

Otley Saracens 60

Liverpool St Helens 5

Saracens produced an outstanding performance against the odds to run Liverpool St Helens ragged and record their third win in a row.

It did not seem likely when they lost their complete threequarter line at training on Thursday and their bad luck continued when they lost their talented young half-back Ben Greaves in the opening minutes with a shoulder injury. This setback only seemed to spur Saracens to greater effort with Sam Gardner moving to scrum-half, Tony Greig to centre and Alan Moffatt, who had been hoping to rest a leg injury, coming into the back row.

The pack was rock solid again in the set scrums and with Richard Malir and Mark Nixon winning some good line-out possession Saracens had plenty of opportunity to set up attacking plays. Sam Gardner was a revelation at scrum-half and was a thorn in the visitor's side the whole afternoon with his varied play. Tony Greig produced several strong runs in the centre as well as putting in some big hits in defence. Mark Nixon, playing his first game of the season, gave the selectors something to think about with a storming game in the loose to set up some great second phase ball.

Even after only three games there are signs that the pack is developing into a formidable unit and Andy Merkin as well as performing well in the set pieces found time to score a hat-trick with good support play. Richard Barlow linked well from full-back to run in two tries and Craig Jackson used his pace to add a brace. Sam Gardner, Matt Gordon and skipper Andy Hargreaves scored one each. Chris Quinn adding five conversions to set the seal on a great team performance.

Ilkley Seconds 30

Otley Tongans 9

Losing players to the Saracens and several arriving late due to a traffic jam was not the right preparation and Ilkley made all the early running.

George O'Bank giving them the lead with two well struck penalties. Tongans started to settle and drew level with two penalties by Charles Bending.

Ilkley hit back and forced their way over but a third Bending penalty made it 11-9 at half-time.

Otley went close on the restart but when they failed to cover a high kick the Ilkley left winger was given an easy run in and almost immediately he intercepted a sloppy pass to go in under the posts.

Stung by this reverse Otley attacked strongly and hammered at the Ilkley line but they could not pierce a strong home defence.

In the dying seconds the Ilkley left-winger completed his hat-trick when he again intercepted an Otley pass to race away and give a final score which did not fully reflect the closeness of the encounter. Chris Payne won some good line-out possession and veteran John Nixon and skipper Nick Girling worked hard in the back row.

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