WEST Leeds were gifted a 33-20 victory by an out-of-sorts Malton and Norton at the Gannock in Yorkshire Two.

The visitors played to a simple plan of kicking for position whenever possible and then pressurising Malton into errors. Three of the five tries scored by West Leeds were as a result of Malton errors.

Malton opened the scoring after 20 minutes when they gained a good position in the corner. The lineout was won and, from the resulting ruck, hooker Steve Piercy sprinted over. Will Barber converted and Malton should have built on the lead.

But West Leeds responded by putting Malton under pressure near their own line before spinning the ball wide for their left wing to cross. The conversion levelled the scores.

Right on half-time Malton again pressed the self-destruct button. After winning a defensive lineout they tried to run from behind their own line. Under severe pressure from the visitors the ball was dropped and any one of three players were on hand to touch down. The conversion meant that Malton faced a half-time deficit 14-7.

Barber made it 14-10 by converting a penalty after a visiting forward was adjudged to have handled the ball in a ruck and was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes.

But the next score came after yet another fine kick from Leeds fly-half David Breakwell found the corner. The visitors won the ball and Breakwell gained possession to launch himself over the line.

The vistors followed up with another gift when Malton again tried to run the ball from defence instead of clearing their lines. A poor pass went to ground and the visitors seized the loose ball and score. Breakwell added the extras.

The next and final try came after a good run by centre Phil Thompson, who set out on a mazy run from just inside the Malton half. Several tackles were missed and he was allowed to cross between the posts.

Malton staged a brief recovery in the final 15 minutes and Barber reduced the arrears when he broke from 15 metres out and crossed to reduce the arrears.

Flanker Richard Webster, who had an excellent game throughout, then reduced the deficit further with another try but it was too little too late and West Leeds kept their unbeaten record and top spot in the league.

Selby were made to pay for their ill-discipline as the Sandhill Laners slumped to a 25-19 defeat to Bridlington in Yorkshire One.

Despite outscoring the east coast outfit by three tries to one, Selby allowed the visitors to nab the league points by handing them too many penalty opportunities.

Matthew Smith, Rob Taylor and Tony Godfrey scored tries for Selby, while Ray Adamson was successful with two conversions.

Updated: 11:24 Monday, September 30, 2002