North Ribblesdale 42 Scarborough 21

THE Grove Park spectators are getting their money's worth after another cracking Yorkshire One encounter.

Although 21 points separated the sides it was far from being a one-sided encounter. Scarborough were in touch for much of the game thanks to their big pack and two tries from mercurial winger Matty Young.

Ribb burst clear in the second half when the game was in the balance with four tries, two from replacement Matt Speres and one each by Steve Moon and Jonathan Richards.

The stand out performer was replacement Speres. He made enormous amounts of ground and dominated the last ten minutes when Scarborough's pack tired.

The win was the product of a good team effort from Ribb. Sam Boatwright made a lot of hard yards all game and Jim Tunney was top of the tackle count as well as making good ground.

The backs looked sharp with Moon and David Fox combining well. The alert Fox scored Ribb's first try with a show and go from a driven maul, the only blemish on Moon's day was hitting the post with the easy conversion.

The downside for Ribb was the loss of Simon Bolland with a leg injury after a mid-air challenge which most officials would have yellow carded.

John Padley also went off in the first half with a knee ligament injury which may keep him out for several weeks.

Another black mark was the loss of concentration at penalties when Scarborough's Young went over for two tries from close-range tap penalties.

After Fox had opened the scoring, Scarborough came back at Ribb. They used their big forwards, notably No 8 Issac Faamu to drive Ribb back.

The pressure led to Ribb giving away three penalties which took them from Scarborough's line to the 22.

Ribb were offside from the line-out and attention was elsewhere when Young tapped and drove over for the first of his two tries

The home side finished the first half 17-13 up with the game in the balance with Bolland and Padley having already left the action.

Boatwright's made his presence felt with some forthright play in both defence and attack as a re-organised pack started the second half brightly.

Once Speres joined the action the complexion of the game changed. His ball carrying posed real problems for Scarborough.

He scored two tries – one from the halfway line – and made one for Jonathan Richards.

Scarborough were not finished and scored two tries with Young getting his second from another short-range tap penalty. Graham Jeffrey also kicked a conversion.

Ribb endured their poorest spell of the game as they kicked a lot of ball away and gave Scarborough the chance to pen them in their own half.

The last ten minutes saw Ribb back to their best. Moon scored a solo try from a retreating scrum, Speres put Richards in and Moon hit form with his goal kicking to seal a good win.

Ribb have a rearranged game away game at Yarnbury on Saturday.