THE opening of the Yorkshire Mens League brought joy for several local rugby league sides at the weekend.
In the Premier Division, Queensbury ran out 22-10 winners at home to last year's rivals Cutsyke Raiders.
After a prolonged pre-season, in which coach Alan Redmonds bonded the players together as a unit and tried out some new faces, it was the real thing as the league campaign opened with a vengeance.
Early on, Bury had to re-shuffle, losing returning half back Joel "Chaz"Charlton to a suspected broken arm.
On 12 minutes, Cutsyke found a gap after a spell of pressure and a number of mistakes and got on the scoreboard.
Bury then began to find their feet, with the hits going in hard and fast, taking the sting out of the big Cutsyke pack.
The balance of the game swung and Joe Langford scored after a smart move to the right of the posts, converted by Scott Swann.
A superb solo effort from young prospect Henry Houson took Bury into half-time on top at 12-4.
Ten minutes into the second period Dave "Mave"Greenwood plucked the ball out of the air to score in the corner to make it 16-4.
With Bury on top and looking dangerous every time they had the ball, the Cutsyke tempo began to falter and the hosts held on for a 22-10 victory.
They sit third in the table after the first round of fixtures, and travel to old adversaries East Hull next.
Wyke put in an impressive performance at Stanningley in Division Two, with no less than eight different try-scorers in their 48-4 win.
The huge points margin meant the visitors shot into second-place, only not taking top spot by virtue of the conceded try.
Meanwhile, Keighley Albion managed a 26-18 win at home to the Stainland Stags, despite both scoring the same amount of tries.
It was the kicking of Connor Meegan that came good for Albion, with four conversions and one penalty goal to his name.
There was only one game in the NCL Alliance Group Two division where West Bowling A travelled to Heworth.
Bowling's side was made up of U18 players, several mature players, as well as Steve Pryce, Lee Hutchinson and Phil Chappell coming out of retirement to help out due to injuries.
The visitors were down 12-8 at the break, but despite poor kicking, Bowling pushed through in the second period to win 24-16.
Isaac Khan, Brett Greenwood, Josh Wooley, Aaron Newall and Joe Batty got the tries, with only two followed up with conversions courtesy of Mark Dove and Isaac Khan again.
Bowling go top of the division, with a short trip to Dewsbury Moor Maroons next on the agenda.
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