Kirkby in the soup after the 'duck' try

Appropriately enough on an afternoon when it never seemed to stop raining, Keighley scored from a planned move called Three Ducks'.

The home side needed a fixture yesterday, having been inactive on the two previous Saturdays when their league match at Scarborough was twice called off.

And they looked bright early doors in this club match, going ahead with a try by prop Richard Leach from that training-ground move.

They added two more tries before half-time from promising right winger James Morton but rather ran out of steam on the heavy pitch and conceded a try to centre Ollie Atkinson and a conversion and a penalty to Tom Pickthall.

On a day when the participants did well to even try and play constructive rugby, no-one was complaining when Ilkley referee Jon Tomlinson blew the final whistle two minutes early.

Leach explained his try afterwards by saying: "We have a planned move from a line-out called Three Ducks.

"We call a middle ball and the scrum half goes one way and the back row goes another, drawing away the man at the front of the line-out and it was a bit of a walk-in try for me really from close range."

Leach, who had shaken off the affects of flu in the week prior to the match, added: "We needed a run-out to get rid of some of our rustiness, and everyone in the squad got that, despite the weather.

"To say we haven't played for a couple of weeks, we did all right in the first half, although we let them creep back into it in the second half. They changed their game-plan and fair credit to them for that."

As for his own contribution, Leach said: "I played all right - I am fitter than I have been in a long time.

"I filled in in the second row for a bit last season but we seem to have plenty of them coming through.

"However, we are struggling for props at the moment with Evan Griffin being injured and Ollie Sugden being out injured for a spell as well, hence my move to the front row. Also Paul Sinfield was injured in this game."

This was Keighley's fifth successive victory - three in Yorkshire One, one in the Yorkshire Shield and this weekend's club match triumph - and Leach added: "Hopefully we have turned the corner now.

"Our backs have come good in the past few weeks and that is why we are scoring more tries, which was a problem at the beginning of the season." Keighley lost seven of their first eight league matches - and ten successive games in all, including a 29-8 pre-season warm-up defeat at Kirkby Lonsdale - and the prop finds that difficult to fathom.

He said: "I don't think you can solely blame it on things like having players away cricketing. I think it just takes us a while for our bodies to get used to contact, and what everybody forgets is that we have a really young side.

"Slim (Paul Sinfield) is 38 and the likes of myself, Dave Pullen and Micky Feather are around the 33 or 34 mark.

"Most of the rest are under 25, so in that respect it bodes well for the future. We had a couple of young lads playing here in replacement hooker Will Armitage and Sam Long in the second row."

Keighley back Matthew Cox was a lively presence in the opening minutes, although they had nothing to show for their possession and territory until Leach's try in the 17th minute, Sinfield passing to flanker Rob Ellis, who gave the prop the scoring pass.

Morton's first try came when he intercepted a pass from the Cumbrians' skipper Simon Dowker in the 21st minute. That was relatively simple but he had to show his pace and strength to score his second 14 minutes later from 25 metres out.

Cox's conversion made it 17-0, although the visitors threatened just before the interval when flanker Alan Robinson charged down a kick, picked the ball up and passed to prop Tim Groves, whose outside pass went astray.

Kirkby Lonsdale got on the board in the 49th minute with a penalty by Pickthall after half-time replacement Armitage was penalised for use of the elbow.

A minute later, Atkinson bagged a try from Ben Walker's kick and Pickthall's conversion made it 17-10.

However, with the skies darkening significantly, Kirkby Lonsdale, who won their first five matches this season in the North Lancs and Cumbria Division but lost their next five, could not add any further points.

Sinfield was helped off with an ankle injury in the 62nd minute but reckoned afterwards that he would be fit to face visitors Ilkley next Saturday.