YORK ACORN racked up the points as they beat Skirlaugh 38-26 in National Conference League division one.

The game between the two earlier in the season was a spectacular 42-42 draw and, this time, was played with intensity from both sides.

Scott Rhodes’ men were first out of the blocks, touching down in the second minute. Acorn drove the length of the field and Joe Porter crashed over. Anthony Chilton added the extras.

Four minutes later, the forwards again made good yards and winger Joel Johnson stepped inside his opposite number to score.

Skirlaugh then became the dominant side and applied immense pressure on Acorn’s line.

A neat kick over the defence from stand-off Carl Puckering, spotting the full back too deep, was collected by 17-year-old winger Harry Inman to touch down for the first of a hat-trick of tries in the opening half.

They were undone again when former York City Knight Lee Waterman challenged for the ball from a Puckering kick and was awarded a penalty try with the referee judging the ball had been kicked out of his hand in the act of scoring.

Puckering’s conversion levelled the scores at 10-10.

The game swung the other way when Chilton’s cross-field kick was collected by Jordan Myers to score.

With five minutes to play, Acorn fell off tackles and Inman took advantage to score out wide and, when he added a third as the half came to a close, Skirlaugh led 20-16 at the break.

Acorn began the second half as they started the first.

The Skirlaugh defence was dazzled by great footwork from scrum-half Joe Budd, skipping round would be tacklers to level the game again, before winger Ryan Gallacher muscled past three defenders to touch down.

They extended the lead even further when hooker Lewis Lord foxed his markers and dived in from dummy half.

Prop Luke Thompson crashed over for Skirlaugh, though, to bring the game back within their reach only for Acorn to batten down the hatches.

And, with five minutes left, Tim Stubbs broke the line to off-load to Lord. He then found full-back Jake Calam, who outpaced the defence to the line.

The victory was sealed by a last minute penalty for a high tackle, kicked by Lord in his last game for Acorn before heading off to university.