Rugby Union: Former Bradford and Bingley coach Bob Hood had a wish at the beginning of the season.

"It was to lead out Yorkshire Under-21s at Twickenham on Saturday, April 18 at 12.30pm, get changed after the match, and come back out to help the senior Yorkshire side in their final."

Unfortunately for Yorkshire Under-21 coach Hood, who is No 2 coach for the senior side behind Jim Kilfoyle, neither of these hopes were fulfilled, both being dashed by Cheshire.

Added the current Yarnbury coach: "The under-21s lost to Cheshire after being ahead - even though we are probably the best side in England at that level."

That happened in November, and the second part of the equation went down the tubes on Saturday at Otley.

Much of the match from Yorkshire's point of view centred on fly half Simon Hawkins and former Bradford and Bingley centre Stuart Dixon.

Dixon finished with all but five of Yorkshire's 21 points, and the erratic Hawkins created their other try for replacement back David Fairclough (Doncaster).

That was the moment of the match. Hawkins, who had missed touch too often with his clearance kicks, tried what seemed a suicidal grubber kick out of his own 22 with two Cheshire attackers bearing down on him. One of them actually got a hand to the ball, but fortune favoured the brave, and the ball ended up in the hands of right winger Alistair McClarron, who has switched clubs from Driffield to Harrogate.

His inside pass found Hawkins in support and the chunky fly half ran deep into Cheshire territory before off-loading to Dixon, who put Fairclough in for a try only a couple of minutes after he had replaced Wharfedale's Jonathan Davies.

Dixon's simple conversion put Yorkshire back in it at just 26-21 behind, but their tactics of driving in with their forwards in a bid to break Cheshire's resistance only succeeded in pinning them in their own 22.

Dixon had three penalty chances in the opening seven minutes, kicking two of them, but Yorkshire never really recovered from Cheshire's purple patch that followed, centre Richard Hughes and scrum half Nick Briers scoring tries, full back Steve Swindells adding a conversion and two penalties to make it 18-6.

Hawkins created Yorkshire's first try in the 32nd minute with a splendid break, almost going over himself, but Dixon did crash over from the resulting tap penalty.

Cheshire fly half Alex Guest dropped a goal in injury time to extend the half-time advantage to 21-11, but there was still enough stoppage time for Dixon to fire another kickable chance wide.

Scrum half Briers added a disputed pushover try in the 50th minute, but Yorkshire fought back with another Dixon penalty and his conversion of that brilliant Fairclough try.

However, another Cheshire score was no surprise and it came in the 79th minute from Manchester's Swindells.

The country's leading points scorer - he now has 403 for the season from eight tries, 87 conversions and 63 penalties - also added the conversion to seal Cheshire's first appearance in a Twickenham final.

Their one championship crown was at Birkenhead Park in 1961, when they defeated Devon in a replay.

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