It was back to winning ways for Skipton with the U7s and U8s combining to take on a mixed age Keighley side at Sandylands. The cold and wet conditions couldn’t put a dampener on the home team’s enthusiasm and Tom Ashley opened the scoring with the first of his two tries before Joe Hayes went over after a typically strong run. Keighley ran well with the ball but Skipton are starting to learn the advantages of holding a defensive line and so the visitors found it hard to make the final few yards to cross the line. As the lead grew, Donnabhan Rudden notched up his first score – good positional sense and fleet footed running led to three more in the match for him – and some last gasp tagging continued to keep Keighley at bay. Charlie Bond made the most of a gap to cross the whitewash in the corner to leave Skipton 5-2 up at half time.
The U7s joined the fray in the second half and held their own in the difficult conditions. Jack Cramby, George Fryers and Elliot Ashley all ran well. Freddie Mills and Joseph Parker continued their recent good form and Harry Atherton did well in his first competitive run out of the season. Keighley came back a little but scores from Aidan Perry, Elliot Halliday and Alfie Price helped the reds come out on top.