Skipton 8, Bradford Salem 18

Bradford Salem avoided a potential banana skin against Skipton yesterday and picked up four valuable league points to maintain their promotion challenge in SSE Yorkshire Division Two.

Despite their lowly position, Skipton came into the game on the back of an excellent Yorkshire Shield victory over Ilkley, and having taken another Yorkshire One scalp after disposing of Keighley in the previous round, Salem knew they couldn’t take their opponents lightly.

In testing conditions at Sandylands, Salem’s pack got the better of the early exchanges.

However, against the run of play, Skipton took a 3-0 lead when referee Gary Kent judged Salem to be offside, fly half Alex Brazier stroking the penalty over from 35 metres.

Then, playing into the strong wind, Salem scored the try of the game following a counter-attack.

The ball was moved wide, allowing centre Tony Williams to scythe through a gap and feed the supporting flanker Damien Pearson, who looked like he might have the legs to go all the way.

However, he unselfishly passed the ball back to Williams, who strolled beneath the sticks for an excellent try improved by fly half Mark Barlow to put the visitors ahead 7-3.

Skipton were unable to make the most of the elements for the remainder of the half and Salem were happy to be in front at the break.

The visitors set themselves a target of three tries in the second half but their cause wasn’t helped when Williams was sent to the sin bin for being persistently offside.

Barlow managed to extend Salem’s lead to seven points with a long-range penalty but Skipton hit back with a try from their South African hooker and skipper Matt Speres to reduce the deficit to 10-8.

Barlow kicked a further long-range penalty to put the Bradford side ahead 13-8 and victory was sealed when Alex Savin, playing in the unaccustomed position of No 8, powered over for his tenth try of the season to give a final scoreline of 18-8.