ANY lingering Harrogate promotion hopes were finally extinguished by Doncaster on Saturday.

Ralph Zoing's men went down 31-28 and with defeat went any hope of promotion from National League Two.

It completed the double for Doncaster over their Claro Road rivals and will go some way to easing the pain of Donny's loss to Harrogate in last season's Yorkshire Cup final.

The result consolidated Doncaster's fourth place in the league, four points ahead of Harrogate, who are fifth.

Harrogate appeared to have the upper hand with a 22-13 lead at half-time but they allowed Doncaster to claw their way back into the game in the second half and steal the victory with a late penalty.

Harrogate played into a biting wind in the first half but produced four

spectacular tries and the third one must be in contention for the try of the

season.

Doncaster kicked off following one of two successful penalty kicks from fly-half Rob Liley and Harrogate flanker Mike Worden caught the ball inside his own 22. No. 8 Cook, who had an outstanding game, broke through

the Doncaster defence on the 22 metre line and raced to the half way line.

Continuous support from the forwards, with second row Andy Boyle prominent, took play to the Doncaster line where wing Tapster touched down for this end to end try.

Further crowd-pleasing tries came from centre Barker and two from full back Ed Smithies who showed pace, power and skill. Lee Cholewa added one conversion.

A try from Doncaster centre Yates, who figured prominently, and a conversion from Liley kept Doncaster in the game.

Two yellow cards for Harrogate prop Gabriel and hooker Erven left Harrogate with 14 men and Doncaster retook the lead with a try from Yates and a converted try from Wakley.

Parity was restored with two penalties from fly half Cholewa and one from Wakley. In the last minute of normal time Wakley kicked the winning penalty.

Deep into injury time Harrogate had an opportunity to level the scores but Cholewa had been replaced and Duncombe just missed the kick at goal.

The matches involving York, Pocklington and York RI all fell victim to the weather.

Pocklington are hoping to stage their postponed Yorkshire Three game against Hemsworth at Percy Road this coming Saturday.

Updated: 11:02 Monday, March 01, 2004