New Earswick All Blacks' attempts to mirror last season's knockout exploits kicked off in fine fashion with a 28-18 defeat of Illingworth.

The visitors play a division above the All Blacks in the Pennine League but the York side gleaned control of this President's Cup preliminary round tie with a brilliant first half and later saw off a fight-back.

Impressive second-row Jamie Rhodes forced his way over in the corner for a 12th-minute lead, Ben Jones goaling from the touchline, and it was soon 12-0 as prop Wes Rodgers collected a tap penalty and took three tacklers over the line with him.

Teenage prop Jack Spearman then lit up his debut as he played his part in the try of the match.

Jones sent Spearman racing clear and he off-loaded to the outstanding Chris Judge. He raced 40 yards to the line crossing unopposed before Jones added his third conversion.

The game looked over on 35 minutes when Judge off-loaded for Alan Pallister to make it 22-0 but the visitors began their comeback just before half-time with a converted try and doubled their tally ten minutes after the restart.

It was game on as, with All Blacks taking their foot off the pedal, Illingworth got another six-pointer on the hour-mark.

However, man of the match Liam Gargan, the teenage stand-off, kicked through for Judge to win the race to the touchdown, James Sanderson goaling, and, despite having Jones sin-binned for backchat in the last six minutes, New Earswick held on for a fine win.

York Acorn 'A' were undone 28-26 in a division three thriller against Morley Borough, while Selby Warriors got their second division four win, with an excellent 31-22 victory at high-flying Slaithwaite Saracens.

Updated: 10:00 Tuesday, October 04, 2005