First win of year for New Earswick All Blacks

The White Rose Avenue club gained their first win of the year in the Pennine League championship after beating hosts Birstall Victoria 28-18.

Fifth-placed New Earswick fell behind to a converted Birstall try, but they responded when loose forward Jack Sinclair crossed for an unconverted try.

Birstall extended their advantage with two tries, but the visitors rallied and centre Adam Kirby went over before Sinclair touched down to make it 16-12 to the hosts at half-time.

A try by centre Dave Findlay, converted by full-back Tom Holmes, put the All Blacks in front and, although Birstall levelled with a penalty, Holmes matched that effort with the boot to make it 20-18.

A try by substitute Joe Davis was converted by Holmes, who added another penalty in the last minute.

All Blacks man of the match was hooker Jack Carling. He was backed up well by Holmes and stand-off Sean Malarkey.

New Earswick ‘A’ picked up their sixth win of the division four season, registering a shock 26-22 success at Wibsey Warriors ‘A’.

The hosts held a 16-8 half-time lead with George Pallister and hard-working second rower Robbie Beavers scoring unconverted tries.

But after the interval, solid work saw the All Blacks take a tentative hold, rewarded by scrum-half Ady Robinson crashing over for a try against his old club. Max Bracken added the conversion.

Wibsey nudged 22-14 ahead with a try and conversion, but centre Pallister gained his second try with Bracken again successful.

Robinson bagged the winning try, which was again kicked, with two minutes left.

Bobby Smith was man of the match, supported by Pallister and Bracken. Rob Grayham had another solid display in a great team effort.

Selby Warriors were 30-0 victors at West Bowling ‘A’ in division two, while Warriors ‘B’ beat visitors Queensbury ‘B’ 34-0 in division seven.

Heworth ‘A’ opened their Yorkshire Mens League campaign with a 16-12 victory at North Yorkshire Stallions.

The Villagers led 10-0 at half-time and increased their lead to 16-0 after the break, but had to withstand a determined fightback by the home side in the final quarter.

The deadlock was broken on 18 minutes when prop Gary Watkinson flicked out an excellent short ball on the blind side to put centre Karl Southerington over in the corner.

Five minutes from the break, hooker Rich Rogers darted over to score after some good approach work by wingman Dave Gardner and loose forward Tyler Craig.

Stand-off Tom Barron added the conversion.

Heworth looked to have wrapped up the match on 53 minutes when Craig crossed after backing up a fine 40-metre break by centre Chris Taylor. Barron added the extras.

The home side, however, fought back to register two converted tries in the final quarter.

Second rower Jon Cambridge took the man of the match award for the Villagers, with excellent support from Southerington and skipper Paul Watson.

Understrength York Acorn ‘A’ came back from a 16-0 half-time deficit to gain a superb 18-16 win at Elland in the White Rose Trophy.

Acorn hit back in the second period with James Bromwich crossing, then Jimmy Mountford got the visitors within striking distance but it took an Eddie Clapham special from his own half to seal the win. Mountford converted all three tries.

Karl Harton took the man of the match award, but Clapham and Aaron Thompson also excelled.