Wyke 15, Queensbury 12 Stand-off James Dewhirst proved to be the executioner in chief as Wyke pulled off a major upset in the first round of the Jack Senior Memorial Bradford Cup.
Premier Division outfit Queensbury were clear favourites to march through to the semi-finals against the Black and Whites, who are languishing at the bottom of Division Two without a win this term.
Wyke opened the scoring when prop Mick Wormald found the target with a penalty for holding down, before ’Bury roared up field only to pass into touch with a two-man overlap waiting to pounce.
But they made no mistake shortly afterwards when second-row forward Joe Swaine fired a cut-out ball to wingman Sam Poole, who found the whitewash at speed.
It was end-to-end excitement as both sets of forwards strived for supremacy and it was the opportunist Dewhirst who spotted the tiniest of gaps to burrow over from acting half to regain the lead at 6-4. He then caused havoc with a short kick over the Queensbury defence, leaving Wormald to slot over another penalty when he was floored off the ball.
’Bury responded with a raking move up the right flank but disaster struck when hooker Ian Watkinson incepted to sprint clear.
Just as he seemed to run out of steam against the scrambling defence, up popped wingman Ben Baron on his shoulder to collect the offload and scamper under the posts.
Dewhirst added the extras and when Swaine was caught roughing up in the tackle, he earned a yellow card for his misbehaviour.
At 14-4 ahead, Wyke then had the task of playing up the slope and showed their intent when packman Ash Hutchinson just failed to reach a Dewhirst grubber under the uprights.
Queensbury were far from done, substitutes Ben Naylor and Jack Evison creating huge gaps with their electric pace.
The game went back into the melting pot when full back Gregg Marriott latched on to a short ball from prop Luke Cheney to touch down but once again the conversion attempt sailed wide.
Dewhirst kept his composure and positioned himself bang in front to pop over a one-pointer that ensured the visitors had to score twice.
The Black and Whites’ hearts skipped another beat when Swaine prised open the chance to put Naylor over in the corner.
Prop Lee Kelly charged 40 metres downfield from the restart but it was only a prelude to the final curtain that saw Wyke take the spoils in what was an absorbing encounter.
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