Malton and Norton saved their best performance of the Yorkshire Two season for the season's biggest crowd at the Gannock as they swamped Skipton 50-5.

The early signs were far from bright for Malton as they were comprehensively pushed off their own ball at the first scrum but soon got to grips with their North Yorkshire rivals.

Fly-half Chris Creber varied his game and kept Skipton guessing. Sometimes he ran from deep and at other times sensibly pinned the visitors back with good line kicking.

The Malton pack were much swifter around the field and dominated the line-outs through Richard Webster and Duncan Foster.

After the initial sparring, Malton gained possession in midfield and sent centre Tim Chapman on a sprint to the line. In a desperate effort to prevent the score the Skipton full-back put in a high tackle which gave the referee no option but to award a penalty try and send the offender to the sin-bin. Will Barber added the conversion.

Using a pre-planned move at a line-out 25 metres out, Malton set up a maul and drove to the line for Jon Newsome to claim the touchdown close to the posts for Barber to convert.

Skipton had only just regained a full complement when they suffered from a rather harsh yellow card when a winger was sin-binned for preventing Malton from gaining possession by pushing the ball into touch with his hand.

Malton had almost complete control and from a set scrum on the visitors 22 metre line Newsome chipped over the defence and the ball bounced kindly into Newsome's hands for his second score. Will Barber added his third conversion to give Malton a 21-0 lead at the break.

After half-time Malton moved up a gear and good skills from the three-quarters quickly transferred the ball to the right wing where good work by David Webster sent Barber scuttling over in the corner.

Whenever Skipton did threaten, the Malton defence was in mean mood with Will Jones and Steve Piercy putting in some crunching tackles in midfield.

Barber added a penalty but midway through the half Malton conceded a try when the ball flew loose from a ruck close to the Malton line. Creber appeared to successfully touch down for a 22-metre drop-out but the referee awarded a try to Skipton as one of their players, following up, got to the ball.

Then McKay, having robbed the ball from a Skipton forward, set up a maul. In trying to free himself from a defender who was hanging onto his foot, McKay caught the opposition player with an apparently accidental blow with his foot and was shown the red card.

The set-back only spurred Malton on to greater things. Barber spotted a gap in the defence and weaved his way under the posts for his second score then Creber scored a wonderful individual try. Barber converted both tries before Malton finished the day with another great try as substitute Ian Cooke went over in the corner. With a marvellous kick from the touchline Barber rounded off a good afternoon's work with a personal haul of 25 points.

Updated: 12:18 Monday, October 28, 2002