YORK Acorn 'A' cantered to their fifth straight Pennine League Division Five win with a 72-4 home victory over West Bowling 'B'.

Impressive displays by teenage winger Kyle Palmer, who notched 24 points from three tries and six goals, debutant teenagers Jason Harper and Simon Wadsworth, centre Matthew Embleton, second row Ricky Morrow and stand-off Mick Calam, gave Acorn the platform to secure an emphatic win.

Acorn's other points came from tries by John Tattersfield, Embleton, Alex Cowton, Chris Caulfield, Calam, Matthew Chapman, Ben Hodgson (2), Morrow, Rich Scott and Wadsworth (2).

Hot on Acorn's heels at the top of the table are Selby Warriors, who thumped Victoria Rangers 40-12.

Selby coasted to an interval lead of 34-0 but Victoria tightened up their defence and hit back with a couple of second half tries.

Scrum half Wayne Fennell forced his way over for the first try. Mark Hansen added the goal and ten minutes later he added the conversion to another Fennell try.

A penalty and a Nick Weaver try increased Selby's lead before skipper Carl Bardauskas went over from 15 yards. Hansen added the goal and then converted his own try to make it 28-0.

A brief punch-up involving just about everyone on the field saw Warriors' Ramskill sent to the sin bin, but even with just 12 men Selby added to their try tally when Sean Barker crashed over.

After a Bardauskas try and Hansen goal made it 40-0, Victoria stunned Selby with a couple of soft tries and could have had a third but for a brilliant tackle by man-of-the-match Fennell.

York Groves finally posted the big score they have been threatening to produce with a 42-3 victory over Keighley Town in Pennine League Division Five.

Fullback Paul Marshall burst through the Keighley defence for the opening score and although Jason Dunn missed the conversion from a tight angle he made amends by converting his own try soon afterwards.

Nigel Ridsdale and John Rushworth both added a try before half time with Dunn adding both extras.

Keighley responded with a penalty but Simon Moat stretched Groves' lead with a converted try.

John Thompson came off the bench to steal the show with a hat-trick of tries in the final quarter as Keighley could not contain his pace and power. Dunn improved two of his three tries.

It was a great Groves team performance with Dunn topping the tackle count for the second successive week and wingman Paul Watson making valuable ground from acting half.

New Earswick All Blacks lost 16-6 at Dewsbury Moor in the Yorkshire League Senior Division.

Improvement needed quickly

New Earswick All Blacks Under-16s lost 48-14 at Halifax side King Cross and will need to improve when the sides meet again next week in the Yorkshire Cup.

Earswick tailed 18-10 at the interval, tries by Jack French Danny Allen, who also added the extras, keeping them in touch.

But King Cross dominated the second half with Jack Goodaker scoring the only try for All Blacks, who missed far too many tackles.

Joe Stearman was All Blacks' man of the match, closely followed by Thomas Hodgson.

New Earswick Under-14s recovered from an error-riddled first half to defeat hosts East Leeds 28-20.

First half tries by Brian Wright and Joe Davis were added to by Wright and Elliot Bridge before East Leeds hit back to reduce the arrears to two points.

Clever handling from Alex Redhead sent Dan Lofthouse over for the clinching try, Pat Smith converting four out of five attempts.

Stanley cut open by Acorn

YORK Acorn Under-14s turned on the style to win 47-10 at Stanley Rangers in Yorkshire League Division One.

They led 17-0 at the interval after tries by Tom Harrison, Steve Doswell and Adam Jones. Ross Varley kicked a drop goal and a conversion.

Using the slope to their advantage in the second period Acorn took full control with tries by Dave Leeke (2), Danny Birkitt, man of the match Paul Cross and Jones, who completed his hat-trick. Varley kicked the rest of the points.

Despite losing 30-14 to Hunslet Parkside, Acorn U-11s, fielding three new players, managed to put some possession to use, scoring tries through Nathan Potter, David Magson and Daniel Whittaker.

Grant Spain was man of the match for Acorn who let in 14 unanswered points in the last ten minutes.

Updated: 13:09 Tuesday, October 14, 2003