Disappointment for Otliensians

WITH Bramley engaged in a re-arranged fixture with Yarnbury it was a visit to the clearing house for Otliensians and they picked up a fixture against Morley.

With Morley declining the invitation to come to Otley and use the first team pitch Otliensians were surprised to find themselves banished to a practice pitch which was no good 25 years ago and certainly hasn't improved.

Otliensians made changes with Andy Hayward deputising for Graham Bentley and Adrian Fawell for Andrew Thorpe.

Early exchanges were even with Morley taking the lead but with play end to end there was very little in it. Morley scored four tries to Otliensians three. Otliensians came from Rob Wilkes, Peter Tempest and Neil Barlow with one converted by Barlow.

Coming to the interval Otliensians' pack began to dominate the set pieces disrupting Morley's possession successfully and with a deficit of only five points at the break there seemed a good chance that the second-half would be more productive from Otliensians' point of view.

Almost immediately however the Morley prop feigned an injury and left the field and although there were six replacements none was a front row forward. The referee deemed the scrums should then be non contested. After 10 minutes the visitors lost Simon Dykes with a neck injury. His replacement Simon Coates came on at full-back with David Smith moving to flanker.

With the benefit of clean possession the talented Morley backs were difficult to contain and they increased their lead with a converted try.

Otliensians lost Peter Tempest with a knee injury and there was no replacement so they had to play the last 15 minutes short. In this period Morley added two tries one of which was converted to give them what in the end was a comfortable victory.

It was a hollow one as the laws of the game had been exploited to the full.

Otliensians A 13 Bramley A 29

It was obvious in the early stages that the visitors were a sound and well-organised team. Launching several early attacks they found the Otliensisans' defence sound. In fact on their first visit to the Bramley 22 they took the lead with an Ian Chaplin penalty goal.

Unfortunately he missed a couple of attempts before Bramley got on the scoresheet with a converted try.

Another converted try put Bramley 14-3 ahead and a penalty by Chaplin before the break made it 14-6.

Although Bramley scored an early try in the second-half an excellent interception try by Matthew Tenniswood saw him score under the posts for Chaplin to convert and reduce the lead to six points.

Unfortunately as they scented victory the errors in Otliensians game which had been apparent throughout continued. Sloppy kicking and poor handling gave the visitors two further tries to confirm their well-earned victory.

Bramley Phoenix B 33 Otliensians B 7

The determination to win appears to have deserted Otliensians B - hopefully only temporarily. Whilst fielding a less than full strength side it was the lack of quality that significantly contributed to their defeat at the hands of a more cohesive side.

The early exchanges were scrappy and the visitors did well to defend against Bramley's near total command of possession. Yet with ball from set piece play more evenly distributed Otliensians looked capable in attack.

It was from such a position that the visitors opened the scoring with a flowing threequarter move that began in their own half and was finished by stand-in centre Matthew Dykes. He crossed between the posts to give Neil Moore a simple conversion.

Despite a disappointing score conceeded on the stroke of half-time Otliensians still had every chance of victory.

However, the required improvement in commitment did not materialise as Otliensians' defence became increasingly fragmented allowing Bramley sufficient holes to exploit. This they did to good effect running in a further four tries before the final whistle.

West Park U-14s lift cup

West Park U-14s 33 Old Brodleians 17

WEST Park Under-14s maintained their county chamnpions status when they won the county cup for a second successive season.

Injuries robbed Park of some key players but they were still in confident mood for the trip to Sheffield,

From the kick-off they took the game to Brods and their forwards put the opposition under pressure. It was however Park's backs who provided the scoring touch with centre Tom Gorman outpacing the Brods' defence to score and Nick Holdsworth converted.

Park continued to dominate and were rewarded with a penalty try as prop Ben Fear was felled by a high tackle in the act of scoring. Holdsworth added the extras.

Brods at last opened up and were rewarded with a good try on the stroke of half-time.

The second-half saw Park get another try through Gorman which Alex Blakeborough converted. Again Brods hit back with a good converted try and lobbed to get back in the hunt. With the game still in the balance Gorman went over to complete his hat-trick and Holdsworth converted.

Brods still looked in with a chance and their heads were raised when they crossed for a third try.

Park however sealed the game when winger Anthony Clitheroe kicked a loose ball on to score in the corner.

This capped another great cup performance by this talented Park side.

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