Aspatria recover for fine home win
Last updated 19:58, Thursday, 16 October 2008
ASPATRIA recovered from an error-strewn first half to beat Ilkley 31-17 at Bower Park in North Two East.
The Black Reds started brightly with forward pressure giving fly half Mike Scott an early penalty opportunity to open the scoring.
This advantage was negated after 12 minutes when the home side conceded a penalty for holding on in the ruck. Minutes later Ilkley took a 6-3 lead when Aspatria committed yet another offence at the ruck.
With minutes of the half remaining Aspatria had a golden opportunity to score the first try when flanker Jacques Rowe charged down an Ilkley clearing kick, re-gathered the ball but was tackled inches short of the line.
Aspatria continued to apply pressure and eventually Ilkley gave away a penalty to allow Scott the opportunity. Unfortunately, he missed what to him was a bread-and-butter kick allowing Ilkley to take a slender lead into the second half.
In the early part of the second half Ian McDowell replaced Derek Benson at hooker and Mark Bowe came into the second row for Dickie Miller. The injection of this new blood lifted Aspatria.
Almost immediately the home pack set up a platform to launch Gary Hodgson out of the backline. Hodgson smartly out-stepped two defenders to score and Scott was successful with the conversion to give his side a 10-6 lead.
Within three minutes of the restart Aspatria increased their lead when winger Ricky Holliday had the presence of mind to pounce on a poor Ilkley clearing kick.
Holliday looked certain to score himself but was dragged down on the line. He off-loaded to Hodgson who had a simple touchdown for his second try. By now Scott had his kicking boots on and took the score out to 17-6.
Ilkley responded with a penalty but it was Aspatria who would get the next try on 65 minutes.
Excellent work by hooker McDowell and his fellow forwards drove the ball close to the Ilkley line and smart passing by scrum half Jack Clegg released winger Lee Tinnion to score in the corner. A magnificent Scott conversion from the touchline increased the home advantage to 24-9.
Ilkley again responded with a penalty but on 70 minutes the result was put beyond doubt when Scott started a flowing backs move from his own 22 with a vintage sidestep that left two Ilkley defenders floundering.
Centre Lee Askew took up the ball and drove deep into Ilkley territory before releasing to Tinnion who went in under the posts. Scott knocked over the conversion.
On 73 minutes, referee Martin Denver lost patience with Aspatria for their poor discipline at the breakdown.
He could have yellow carded any one of eight but the unlucky recipient was to be centre Askew.
The resulting penalty led to Ilkley’s best moment of the match when number eight Brewer crashed over for a score that was not improved. Carlisle broke their duck in North Two East with a nail-biting 29-22 win over Gateshead at Warwick Road.
Penrith were good 34-22 winners at Sandal.
In North Lancs Cumbria Workington and Keswick were both disappointed to lose their games by last minute scores.
Workington went down 19-18 at Heaton Moor while Keswick lost 10-6 at Oldham.
At Stockport the Zebras were slowly into their stride and it took them some 20 minutes to get the bus journey out of their legs.
They conceded the first points of the game from a penalty but got back on terms with a Kevin Harper penalty.
But Workington paid for their slow start when Heaton Moor scored a try and a penalty to move into an 11-3 lead.
Zebras hit back when David Bowe put in a strong run after some smart inter-play among the forwards and his brother Andrew Bowe was there to take the pass and crash over for a try which Harper converted.
Then David Bowe rounded off some strong play by the forwards by scoring a second try. Harper missed the conversion and when the Zebras were awarded a penalty Mike Hawley took over and made no mistake.
Heaton Moor came back strongly but they were given a lifeline through a disputed try. A kick for the corner saw Workington’s Jonathan Howarth first man there. He went down on the ball and seemed to have touched down cleanly but the referee ruled he had made no downward pressure and gave a try to the Moor man who arrived seconds later and got his hand on the ball.
The conversion was missed but Heaton Moor were awarded a penalty in front of the sticks and the kick won the game. Workington team manager Kevin O’Neil said: “The referee was the only man who saw it that way. We felt hard done by in the end.”
Keswick were also undone by a late score at Oldham after John Hine had kicked them into the lead at 6-5 two minutes from the end.
But a blunder let in Oldham for the killer try.
Wigton’s whizkids were too hot for Fleetwood to handle and won 19-5.
Workington Steelers conceded 50 points as they were beaten by Whitehaven in the Cumbria League.
With Whitehaven and St Benedict’s likely to force the pace, along with Egremont and Millom, it looks as though Copeland may hold the balance of power in the division.
At the Ellis, Whitehaven made a bright start and were quickly in front when winger Luke Scott raced 60 metres for a well taken try.
Soon afterwards it was Scott again on a long-distance run to the line, this time going 50 metres for the touchdown.
And the final score of the game came from Scott to complete his hat-trick.
Workington had seasoned forwards Carl Metherell and John Dryden in the side but it was essentially a very young XV and they stuck at it well.
Gosforth Greengarth managed to get the bare 15 players for the trip to Wigton but came away with a hard fought 10-7 victory over the Wanderers.
Netherhall brought Cockermouth’s good start to the season to an end as they won 23-3 after a very competitive game in very heavy conditions. The Maryport side were worthy winners after starting well.
Millom were 20-16 winners at Creighton but they needed a last minute try to win it. The final whistle sounded after the conversion attempt missed, with centre Peter Moore having dived in for the late winner.
A young Aspatria Eagles side just did enough to beat Moresby 11-5 although they had to withstand some strong pressure in the closing stages.
Outside centre Nicholas Edgar scored the Eagles try when he followed up a kick through and won the race to the touchdown.
Seventeen-year-old full-back Chris Scott kicked two penalties for the Eagles to stretch their lead.
Moresby, a more experienced side, mounted strong pressure and, when they scored an unconverted try near the end, still looked to have time to win but the Eagles defended very well to keep their line intact.
