Bramley Phoenix 33 Skipton 17

Due to several Skipton players being unable to find the ground a revised starting line up was put together.

Despite this, the visitors had all the early play and although they were in the home team’s 22 for the first ten minutes, no score was forthcoming.

In contrast, Phoenix made one sortie into the Skipton half and took the lead with a penalty.

Skipton then suffered an other setback as they lost Jordan Wilson with a chest injury so Josh Beck took over at flanker.

Bramley mounted another attack and when they knock- ed on Skipton attempted to clear their line but the kick was charged down.

The referee didn’t return to the earlier infringement and awarded the try, which wasn’t converted, leaving the visitors 8-0 down.

Excellent scrummaging enabled Skipton to take took one against the head.

Bramley also incurred the wrath of the referee which resulted in a yellow card and a penalty which Jeremy Hargreaves landed.

Charlie Brown was the next to see yellow and Bramley restored their eight-point advantage.

Early in the second half Hargreaves scored a try wide out and kicked the difficult conversion to bring his side within a point at 11-10.

Unfortunately a crossfield kick missed its target and the Bramley winger gathered and ran past some fairly weak tackling to score under the posts.

Veteran George Smithson then showed why he can still command a first-team place.

His strong run enabled him to put Darren Howson in for a well-deserved try, which Hargreaves converted.

Bramley scored twice more before the end but this was an improved performance.

The plus points were the performances of Tom Courtney and Will Pennett who were both excellent throughout.