Birkenshaw 18, Queensbury 24

h Two top-class tries from scrum half Carl Smith proved crucial in holders Queensbury keeping a grip on the Jack Senior Memorial Bradford Cup after a see-saw first-round tie at East Bierley yesterday.

Both packs opened up in traditional style by battering the daylights out of each other before the mercurial Smith dipped a shoulder to race into the tiniest of gaps and beat full back Richard Rhodes on the outside for a try in the corner.

Bury full back Luke Brearcliffe sprinted 60 metres, only to fall to a superb cover tackle from Birky wingman Mark Horne, but the visitors shook off the setback when hooker Ben Marks off-loaded smartly for substitute forward Joe Langford to reach the chalk.

Centre Steve Redman combined with his wingman Stuart Bennett in a touchline raid to pounce in the corner, which, together with two conversions from prop Brett Marriott, put Bury firmly in charge of proceedings.

In the final minute of the half, with Birky badly needing a score, stand-off Karl Wroe proved the architect when he ran across the defence to create the extra man to allow wingman Adam Lazenby to cross unchallenged.

Bury increased their advantage to 18-4 when Marriott kicked a penalty on the restart but Smith then ran out of support after a long-range sprint.

He then tantalised a leaden-footed home defence to spot the chance to claim his brace, and when Marriott slotted over the extra two, it looked all over bar the shouting.

Birkenshaw, however, suddenly found their attacking flair and Lazenby will still be kicking himself for spilling a gift at the flag.

Wroe engineered a half-chance for scrum half John Gallagher to reduce the arrears, soon followed by another well-worked try from powerful centre Morton Robinson.

But with both conversion attempts sailing wide, the lack of a reliable goal-kicker was proving vital.

With the final whistle fast approaching, centre Jason Lee collected a short pass from packman Ben Cousen to touch down under the posts and added the extras himself to put his side within an unexpected sight of extra time.

However, Queensbury stuck the ball up their jumpers to see out time and succeeded, despite a major scare at the death when Horne intercepted on his own line only to fall to a double tackle.