Baildon made it four wins on the spin but narrowly missed out on a bonus point against division 3 strugglers Hessle in atrocious conditions at Jenny Lane on Saturday.
The home side's decision to play downhill with a strong wind at their backs in the first half paid dividends as Baildon racked up 20 unanswered points before half-time the first of which came on just 2 minutes after ever-improving young prop Adam Hewitt turned over ruck ball on his opponent's 22 to supply blind-side flanker Tom Craven with a try-scoring pass, stand-off Nicky Lister narrowly missing with the conversion attempt but making amends 20 minutes later with a well-struck penalty to nudge his team ahead 8-0.
The decision of the referee not to brandish a card of either colour after scrum-half and captain James Dawson had to be carried from the pitch on 29 minutes after a late and dangerously high tackle left the Jenny Lane crowd bewildered but the introduction of replacement scrum-half Ben Newton soon had them smiling after a somewhat farcical passage of play resulted in the ex-Derbyshire Barbarians' player scoring his first try for the Jenny Laners. Tom Craven failed to collect a low pass but cleverly hacked at the last moment on with just enough weight to carry the ball over the Hessle try-line for Newton to dive on the ball but apparently fail to ground it correctly and knock the ball forward with his head. Winger Richard Kingham then pounced to touch down only for the referee to award the try to Newton after adjudging that he had effectively grounded the ball after all.
Further indications that the pantomime season had come early to Jenny Lane came with the sin-binning of centre Andy Patchett on 34 minutes after a seemingly innocuous but high tackle. However with an ever-increasing wind in their faces Hessle could not take advantage of the extra man and fell further behind when Prop Phil Wilson barged over just before half-time leaving Nicky Lister a difficult kick to tag on the extras which he expertly converted.
With the lashing wind and driving rain making handling ever more difficult both teams struggled to put the phases together in the second half but Baildon did their best to defeat the elements and were unlucky not to secure the bonus point try after several powerful forward surges put them within inches of the Hessle try-line only to be thwarted by handling errors and desperate last-ditch defence.
Hessle managed a consolation try on 78 minutes but Baildon were left feeling frustrated having been unable to score the fourth try which leaves them mid-table at the half-way point of their league campaign.
Report by Amdy Whitley