YORK Acorn ARLC Under-18s snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at Crigglestone in the first round of the Yorkshire Cup.

The Blue and Golds held a sixpoint lead as the clock ticked down and thought they had secured the win when bundling a home attacker into touch right by the corner flag.

However, the referee adjudged the player to have successfully grounded the ball, and a superb touchline conversion levelled the scores.

If that was painful, greater agony followed as Acorn kicked the restart out on the full, to give Crigglestone a penalty on the centre spot.

The hosts opted to go for goal – and another superb kick landed victory as the referee blew for time.

Acorn had travelled full of confidence after their recent league victory over the same club and got off to a flier when Lewis Lord scooted under the posts from dummy-half, Jake Calam goaling.

Acorn then applied pressure until some enterprising play from Crigglestone put the Blue and Golds on the back foot and brought two converted home tries in two minutes.

Acorn lifted their game after half-time and within three minutes Jordan Myers broke from 40 metres and side-stepped the cover to regain parity in the game.

Acorn had to defend stoicly before Harry Bromwich sold an outrageous dummy and split the defence to put the Blue and Golds back in front.

The last 20 minutes was real end-to-end stuff, but with both defences standing firm.

The game therefore seemed to belong to the visitors – until the painful finale.

Notable Acorn performances came from Myers, Nathan Hammerton, Lord, the hard-working Charlie Settle and man-of-thematch James Casey.

Heworth U11s concluded their league campaign with a 12-12 draw in a fantastic game against Wyke.

Elliot Burden was the man of the match, Jack Moore the top tackler and Harry Griffiths the parents’ choice for star man.

Kian Oliver scored both Heworth tries – taking the magic moment award for his first which saw him dodge three players to cross in the corner – and converted one, Griffiths goaling the other.

New Earswick All Blacks U11s made it four successive wins to end their season when Hunslet Parkside came to visit.

Owen Bassett, the parents’ player of the match, and Ritesh Gurung both scored long-range tries, while impressive pair Lewis Young and top-scorer Ellena Powell, whose brace took her season’s tally to 14 tries, also crossed.

Luke Prenty was the top tackler again, while young Harvey Turner was the most improved player after a fine show.

Heworth U9s completed their season on a high – even though they were on the losing end of closely-fought game.

Playing against East Leeds, the young Villagers showed a vast improvement on previous performances, catching their opponents by surprise with strong tackling and a willingness to move the ball about.

Try-scorers for Heworth were Jay Richards (2) and Oliver Pratt (2), while the top tackler in defence was Eden Martin.

The parents’ man of the match was Oliver Grimbley, the most improved was Tom Clarke, and the coaches men of the match were Pratt and Jake Edgar, who also took opponents’ man-of-the-match accolade.

Heworth U8s’ impressive season came to an end with a topquality game at East Leeds, with the hosts victorious after a great display.

There was a brace of tries from Heworth’s Harvey Watson, who shared the parents’ man-of-the-man award with the eye-catching Ellis Cochrane, while Lucas Burden capped another good display with a try and the top tackler award.

George Bradley-Consett and Liam Foster also both dived over the whitewash after spotting gaps in the defence.

Heworth always troubled East Leeds and it was only in the closing stages after a great fightback from the away side that the hosts took the spoils with couple of tries.

Feargus Brown was the coaches’ man of the match for an all-action performance for the visitors, especially in defence, while Callum Constanzo was the most improved.

Onett Perera captained the side in what was likely to be his farewell game for the club.