YORK Acorn ARLC suffered from a poor first-half showing at Rochdale Mayfield as they lost 22-10 at Rochdale to stay in the drop zone in the National Conference League premier division.

In wet conditions not conducive to free-flowing rugby, Acorn suffered badly from not completing their sets, mainly due to losing the ball in the collisions.

They were also getting beat emphatically on the ground and on several occasions were punished by quick play-the-balls from their hosts who notched four unconverted tries, on four, 12, 16 and 37 minutes, to build up a match-winning 16-0 interval lead.

Most of the damage was done down Acorn's right edge.

After the restart, Acorn came more into the game as an attacking force and their defence coped better against whatever Mayfield could throw at them.

With Acorn's pack, under the promptings of twin powerhouse props Tim Stubbs and man-of-the-match Joe Porter, putting in sterling stints, the game was more evenly balanced.

However, it was Rochdale who got on the scoreboard first with a converted try under the posts.

To their credit Acorn never gave up and they were rewarded on 72 minutes when a storming Porter hit-up set up a great position deep in the Mayfield 20 and Stubbs crashed over for a try converted by Antony Chilton.

On 76 minutes, Acorn further reduced the deficit when flying Australian winger Kurt Patterson acrobatically squeezed in at the corner.

Other players to catch the eye for Acorn were full-back Ryan Gallacher, stand-off Matt Chilton and aggressive running winger Jack Stewart.

In Yorkshire Men's League division two, York Lokomotive fell 46-18 at high-flying Scarborough Pirates.

York Lokos Masters, meanwhile, entertained Leeds Masters in a pulsating encounter on Knavesmire.

The hosts had to soak up tons of pressure from a keen, well-drilled Leeds outfit before flying winger Adrian Brakes broke the deadlock with a scintillating 70-metre run.

Further good work from Simon Haynes and debutant John Leach saw the Lokos take command for the remainder of the half, and, with Martin Bellwood a giant in defence, the visitors simply could not break the Lokos' line.

The second stanza proved an excellent spectacle with Lokos half-backs Pete Maguire and Nigel Tyreman pulling the strings allowing loose-forward Dan Briggs to carve gaps in the tiring Leeds defence.

Leach took advantage of a Steve Whattam break to maraud the length of the Leeds half before feeding the supporting Briggs to score.

Despite renewed effort from Leeds, their only reward came courtesy of a last-minute Richard Tate try.