LADY Luck refused to smile on York's competitors in the second round of the Yorkshire Cup, as both New Earswick All Blacks and York Groves were knocked out.

New Earswick All Blacks were beaten 34-18 in extra time after their thrilling match at Redhill 'A' had ended 18-18 after 80 minutes, while Groves conceded two late tries in losing 18-0 against a side three divisions above them.

All Blacks led 14-0 after half an hour, then trailed 18-14 before equalising with five minutes to go and were only one conversion away from victory.

Alan Pallister put the York side 4-0 up, shooting over from acting half, then Adie Robinson sent a scoring pass out to John Leach, Andy Daniel converting, and a superb All Blacks move soon after was finished by Steve Sullivan in the corner.

Redhill hit back with a converted try to make it 14-6 at the break and then crossed twice more with all extras added to lead 18-14.

The hosts seemed to have won it before man-of-the-match Pallister made a superb break and fed former York Wasps team-mate Dean Thomas to send winger Phil Turpin flying in at the corner.

Andy Daniel - taking on the kicking duties in the absence of his injured brother Jamie - failed with the difficult conversion and the game went to extra-time. All Blacks then tired and saw Redhill run in four tries without reply.

New Earswick chairman Charles Rollinson said: "It was a good performance but we fell away in extra time. However, if we had a recognised goal-kicker we could have won it."

York Groves, who were missing several players through holidays and injuries, put up a sterling performance before losing 18-0 to Keighley Town.

The Terriers, despite playing a side three divisions above them in the Pennine League, were always in with a shout and, having forced their visitors to defend for long periods, could think themselves unlucky.

Keighley went ahead with a converted try against the run of play just before the break.

The game continued in similar fashion after the interval, with Groves pressing the visitors and being stopped just short several times, most notably through Martin Simpson and Nigel Ridsdale.

However, Keighley held firm and scored two long-range tries late in the game to put them through.

Star performers for Groves were James Owens, Simpson and Paul Watson.

York Acorn 'A' produced their best display of the season when losing 29-16 to a rejuvenated Ackworth in Yorkshire League division two.

Ackworth, who fielded several ex-professionals including Jason Ramshaw of Keighley Cougars, were just that little bit better than Acorn, who included four Under-18s players (Robbie and Richie Dolan, Tom Lyons and the impressive Kevin Brayshaw), who all performed admirably.

Top performer for Acorn was centre Paul Day, who crossed for a brace to go with a Paul Sawyer try and two Kev Brundett goals.

Heworth 'A' were hammered 68-4 at Milford 'A' in YL division three.

Updated: 11:24 Tuesday, October 01, 2002