12:30pm Saturday 24th March 2012
YORK Acorn ARLC under-18s continued to hold top spot in Yorkshire Youth League division one after a comprehensive 54-10 win at Meltham All Blacks.
The early exchanges were even but as soon as stand-off Matthew Brewer opened Acorn’s account the result was never in doubt and by half-time the York side led 22-0 lead with further tries from Tim Stubbs, Joe Porter and Brewer again, with goals from Brewer and Liam Cashmore (2).
The second half was almost one-way traffic as they stepped up a gear and scored 32 unanswered points with tries from Gareth Smith, Joel Johnson (2), Stubbs, Jack Scarce and Dominic Noone with further goals from Brewer (3) and Cashmore.
The hosts eventually got on the scoresheet with two late tries and a conversion.
Jim Martin was man-of-the-match but the whole squad worked hard on a difficult, uneven pitch.
Heworth U15s only had 12 players but played very well to lose only 24-8 at Upton, who had 20.
The Villagers took an early lead against the win lead as pressure from Cameron Simpson and Josh Turley gleaned control of the ball, which was passed wide for Lewis Helstrip to cross.
Another well-worked move got them close and a quick pass put Daz Harris over in the corner for an 8-6 lead.
However, Upton replied before half-time and the second half was theirs, though the scoreline does not reflect the closeness of the match as Ryan Martin, Helstrip, Simpson and Turley were outstanding in Heworth’s superb team show.
York Acorn U15s maintained their winning start by beating Kippax 28-10.
Stand-off Jake Calam ghosted through and, although Kippax hit back, Reece Rushworth was strong in defence as Acorn repelled other attacks.
Callum McDarby was rewarded for energetic forward play with a try after great handling from half-backs Calam and Jimmy Hardwick, before Calam grabbed his second.
Kippax scored early in the second half but they had few other chances with forwards Jack Burgess, Rushworth and Tom Bedda creating a platform for further Acorn scores through Rushworth, Alex Smith and Hardwick, bamboozling the defence.
Injury-hit Heworth U14s fought on but lost 46-4 to Hunslet Warriors. Man-of-the-match Harry Radcliffe got the Villagers’ try to equalise early on but the Warriors were too quick around the pitch.
Heworth’s Jack Smith made two long-range cover tackles while Leon Cowling put in some useful tackles and Alex Thomas made good yards.
Leo Baker scored a fine hat-trick as York Acorn U12s gave a fantastic team effort albeit in a 30-22 defeat at Bradford Dudley Hill.
An excellent run from Clayton Shepherdson saw Edward Nelson score and add his first of three goals.
Reece Stevens, top tackler Clayton Shepherdson, Kieran Ward, Jordan Dubery, most improved player Cameron Rostron and Chris Hillman made fine tackles and there were good runs from Dominic Smith, Rostron, Joe Gamble, Shepherdson and Stevens.
Heworth U12s gained their first victory of the season, 24-20 in a thriller against a good Oulton Raiders side.
They scored some fantastic tries with good support play and by moving the ball wide with speed, as epitomised by the second try which started when Harry Sheppeard gathered an Oulton kick from behind his own sticks.
He evaded three men in-goal and sprinted up the touchline before swapping passes with Sam Young and off-loading to Leon Beattie. He was tackled 15 metres short but the play-the-ball was quick and the ball went through two more pairs of hands before Jake Wright crashed over.
Wright ended with three ties, Josh Rogerson finished another flowing move, and quick hands created space for Chris Verzi to skip past a defender and score the winner. Shay North and Young orchestrated the team around the pitch, aided by man-of-the-match hooker Iain Oakley.
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