ILKLEY 12 – 39
Ilkley has to be one of the most picturesque places to play rugby. Conditions were bright and sunny and would have been ideal if not for Hurricane Bessie blowing across the pitch. In fact it was rather surreal watching the game on the stand side of the pitch with the wind at your back, hardly any sound was audible from the pitch, a bit like watching the telly with the sound turned off.
Park made a couple of enforced changes with Brett Sylph, Dave Griffiths and Greg Dixon all at a wedding, Michael Langlands came in to number 8, Ollie Gilmore in the centre, and Anthony Dunn was also back in the pack doing a good impersonation of Pudsey Bear with his head bandaged to protect his cauliflower ear.
Percy Park were buoyed by last weeks win over Rovers, whereas Ilkley were looking for their first win of the season to take them off the bottom of North 1 East. Park had the perfect start when George Purdy snaffled a ball from the home side from the kick off, and from the resulting ruck, fly half Phil Morse made a break which took him past the Ilkley back line, and with only the full back to beat popped the ball inside to Thomas Turnbull who went over, under the posts after only one minutes play. Rutter converted and the home side were scratching their heads being 0 – 7 down so early in the game.
Neither side had any real advantage from the gusting wind, but Park had all the early play and Ilkley seemed unable to get out of their own half. After a sustained spell of pressure, Chris Reekie was straight arm tackled by the Ilkley tight head prop and the penalty was moved a further 10 yards nearer the posts for some back chat, Rutter’s attempt at goal was made that bit easier, and Park were now 10 – 0 up.
The
From the kick off, Park secured the ball and drove forward, before the maul collapsed and Park were given the put in to the scrum. John Scott was given the ball off the back of the scrum and darted through a gap in the defence and gave a try scoring pass to left wing Liam Blackburn who scored under the posts. With the
The visitors were in total control and when a driving maul was pulled down John Oakes was given 10 minutes in the cooler by referee Richard Hackett. Park opted for a scrum from the penalty, and drove the Ilkley pack back towards their line. With the ball at Michael Langlands feet on of the Ilkley players kicked it away and a penalty try was awarded, which Rutter converted on the half hour.
Ilkley regrouped and managed to keep Park out for the remainder of the half.
In the second period, either the home side were a little more determined, or Park took their foot off the gas, and this saw Ilkley come back into the game, and they scored wide on the right after a quickly taken penalty with open side Charlie Cudworth diving over in the corner. Peter Shanks, who was originally named on the bench came into the starting line up, and slotted a very difficult conversion to take the score to 7 – 29 seven minutes in.
Simon Greetham came off the bench for Park and John Scott made way, which meant Olly Gilmore going to scrum half. There were no further scores for the next twenty minutes, although it was Simon Greetham who did score the next try on 72, although the home supporters were a little aggrieved as the pass from Marcus Rutter looked suspiciously forward.
Just before the end of normal time, Park scored again through Olly Gilmore, when Ilkley cracked under the constant pressure and a clearance kick went straight to the visitors scrum half.
With Park leading 7 – 39 and looking for more points it was the home side that had the last word when wing Peter Shanks crossed in the corner, with a little suspicion of a foot in touch. He was unable to convert his own try, but the game ended Ilkley 12 – 39