Malton and Norton went out of the Yorkshire Shield, beaten 51-27 at Keighley.

Malton's pre-match preparation for the quarter-final was limited to ten minutes because they arrived late after traffic delays.

Keighley took full advantage and for the first time this season Malton found themslves up against a team looking to play a similar game to themselves, with the ball being constantly run at the opposition.

Slack defence by Malton led to Keighley building a large lead with four tries, two of which were converted, and two penalties.

Malton's revival began with a typical James McKay try.

Gaining possession 15 metres from the Keighley line he bulldozed his way over. But Malton trailed 30-5 at half-time.

However, Malton looked a much different side at the start of the second half. They began to spread the ball wide and found that the home defence was just as brittle as their own when under pressure.

Fly-half Chris Creber was the first to benefit when he swerved and side-stepped his way through from almost thirty metres to begin the fightback.

Malton hit a purple patch and provided the large crowd with ten minutes of excellent attacking rugby during which Matt Richmond and Tim Chapman acored tries.

Keighley responded with three tries before Malton's Creber broke away from twenty metres out to touch down under the posts. David Webster converted to complete the scoring.

Both sides tried to play open, attractive rugby but both defences left a lot to be desired.

On the plus side for Malton there was an excellent display from second row forward Duncan Foster and both Creber and McKay showed that self belief and hard graft can have rewards.

On the other side of the coin a number of their team mates were below par.

Next Saturday's meeting with Leeds Corinthians at The Gannock will give everyone a chance to put matters right and move closer to the promotion target.

Updated: 11:56 Monday, March 25, 2002