Ilkley 36 Dinnington 24

SPRING had arrived at a busy Stack’s Field when the Dalesmen’s old foes Dinnington came to town. The main event was preceded by a colts game between the same sides and a comfortable Ilkley win set the home support’s hearts racing.

As is typical of a contest between these two passionate sides, Dinnington fought to the bitter end and fully-deserved their bonus point for scoring four excellent tries.

Once again, the Ilkley backs produced the points and Ollie Renton had a massive game. Reverting to his favoured blind-side position, his role was pivotal in securing the hard-fought win.

He even managed a try, Ilkley’s second, when the visitors’ stand-off Jonny West’s up and under was well fielded by Josh Kimber. Even after some distinctly dodgy handling, wingman Ben Magee turned scrap into gold and set up the play that saw the veteran flanker crash over on the left.

Before all this, the home side had started like a train, skipper Stuart Vincent being tackled agonisingly close to the line, following a rare strike against the head.

A superb tap back by Renton in the line-out set up Ilkley’s first score, when Magee’s incursion into the line on the 22 led to a text-book try. Josh Kimber stroked over the conversion.

Ilkley played a mainly defensive game for the next 15 minutes as the Dinnington pack starved the Dalesmen of possession and an unusual fit of poor tackling in the forwards allowed the visitors to build up a head of steam. The pressure almost told when left wing Steve Thompson was bundled into touch by Magee.

The next score though went to Ilkley, when an up and under from Dinnington’s Jonny West was well fielded by Kimber. Despite a poor pass, Magee set up Renton for his try.

Dinnington came right back though and some more missed tackles allowed No 8 Will Marshall to spin over for a well-deserved try that West converted to leave the score 12-7 at half-time.

Ilkley effectively won the game in the first ten minutes of the second half. After two knock-ons by the visitors, a snatched clearance kick was ably fielded by Vincent, who made good ground before offloading to Magee.

Some smart interpassing between Steve Nolson and Renton saw the centre scamper over on the right. The conversion was missed, but from the kick-off, scrum-half Tom Collard cleverly switched play and there was Magee again on hand to gain the yards before a nice inside pass to the onrushing Alistair Monks created another try. Kimber’s conversion made it 24-7.

Dinnington’s never-say-die attitude kicked in and their forwards started to dominate, grinding their way up the field and earning a penalty. West kicked for touch and from the resulting line-out, the visitors’ pack controlled the ball well to allow West to touch down out wide.

The frenetic pace continued when a charge down of a Dinnington clearance kick was smartly picked up by Nolson, who glided over for his second of the day.

At 29-12, Ilkley looked home and dry. The visitors had other ideas and their efforts were rewarded when the forward pressure told on Ilkley. Replacement Gadon Kchika picked up a ball that no one else on the pitch had appeared to notice to score under the posts. The South-Yorkshiremen were back in the game at 29-19.

Ilkley then had a dreadful ten minutes, though they did not concede a score. And this was despite player-coach Stevie Graham seeing yellow when he illegally stopped the flow of a relentless onslaught from the visitors’ pack.

Ilkley’s lines were finally relieved when Kimber cleared to halfway and then some moments of magic in the back-line saw Monks crossing again after some impressive handling. Kimber’s conversion made it 36-19.

Dinnington don’t lie down though and true to their traditions played to the last minute, justly earning a bonus point when winger John Summerville went over in the corner for his side’s fourth try.

That signalled the end of the day’s scoring and a very satisfied crowd retired to the bar, having seen a ten-try spectacle that once again underlined the fact that amateur rugby is alive and well in Yorkshire.

Ilkley never quite reached the heights of some recent performances but it should be stressed that Dinnington are no mugs and their pack is the equal of any in this league.

Coach Rhys Morgan will no doubt be insisting on some tackling practice before his team’s next fixture in two weeks’ time against lowly Crossleyans, away.

Lowly? Yes, but they did beat league-leaders Sheffield recently and proved to be a handful at Stacks Field. A win in Halifax should be enough to guarantee second place. But will Sheffield slip up again and allow Ilkley to steal in for the title?