Bradford Dudley Hill 10, Hull Dockers 24

Bradford Dudley Hill faded after a bright start against an impressive Hull Dockers outfit in a rain- lashed National Conference League Premier Division encounter at Parry Lane yesterday.

Hill breathed a sigh of relief when a touchdown from visiting prop Matt Emerson was ruled out for a forward pass, and when they gained a foothold in the Dockers half for the first time wingman Neil Wall scooped up a dropped pass to cross in the corner.

A skilful sleight of hand from prop forward Sean Dickinson put stand-off Tony Williams into space and he combined effectively with centre Craig Tyman to see wingman Andrew Batty hauled down inches short.

A quick play-the-ball enabled second-row forward Lewis Evans to pick his spot, and when Wall added full reward with a monster kick out of the mud, Hill looked on course to extract revenge for their away defeat earlier in the campaign.

However, it was the Dockers who were stung into action with a sweeping try that started in their own half and ended with scrum half Carl Smirk sprinting under the uprights, leaving stand-off Chris Stephenson an easy conversion.

Hill centre Alex Dickinson looked to be en route to the chalk but dropped the ball with no defender in sight, and Tyman and Batty had to pull out all the stops to force Hull wingman Jack Snowden into touch when he threatened the whitewash out wide.

Substitute forward Liam Jordan had a valiant effort ruled out under the uprights when he was judged to have been offside at the ruck to close the half with Hill on top 10-6.

Unfortunately for the hosts, the wind and rain whipped up during the interval, giving the Hull visitors a massive advantage.

A series of blunders from both sides saw the Dockers emerge with the ball to put Snowden in at the corner flag.

Stephenson hit a post with the conversion but made no mistake with a penalty when Hill were guilty of back- chatting to the referee shortly afterwards.

The momentum was with the visitors as Hill struggled to escape from their own red zone, and when they eventually succeeded, a relieving Hull kick was allowed to bounce, gifting substitute Rob Smith a converted touchdown.

Smirk brought the curtain down when he dummied his way over for his brace to give the visitors the points in what had mainly been a test of endurance against the elements.