THERE were encouraging signs for new West Park Bramhope coach Peter Nash even though his side went down to a narrow six point defeat in the Tetley Bitter Trophy on Saturday.

As the team was only finalised half-an-hour before kick-off they did well to put pressure on the visitors from the opening minute.

It was unfortunate that none of this pressure turned into points and it was the visitors who scored first.

On 15 minutes a disputed push-over try was awarded by the referee although it certainly appeared to look like the West Park forwards had stopped Johnny Johnson from touching the ball down.

Nevertheless, the try was given but Jim Iveson failed with the conversion attempt to leave the score 0-5.

West Park continued to press their opponents and they produced some fine moves between forwards and backs, returning Kiwi Ralph Bennett and Eugene Grimes particularly affective in the forwards.

The new half-back combination of Ben Chadwick and Richard Lye was also working well and it was clear to see that a bit more match experience will soon improve their effectiveness.

Unfortunately for West Park, the newness of the side did mean ball was spilled or taken back inside when it should have been spread out wide to the wings.

The visitors added to their score on 27 minutes when West Park were pulled back for offside,

Iveson adding that penalty and another one just seven minutes later for another offside offence.

At 0-11 with only a few minutes remaining until the break, West Park suddenly seemed to click and a superb break from Matthew Stevens took them into the visitors half. An infringement led to a penalty opportunity which Chadwick struck cleanly through the posts just as the half-time whistle went.

In the second-half, West Park came out all guns blazing but again were unable to put the final pass in which would have seen them score.

They were awarded another penalty for persistant infringement by the visitors but this time Chadwick pulled it just wide of the posts.

Driffield took advantage of a brief lull in West Park's play to press home their advantage and a deep kick from Lye was picked up by the left winger and returned deep into the home side's territory.

A superb tackle by Stevens brought the winger to a halt but not before he had released the ball back inside and just a few moments later Richard Iveson crossed the line for Driffield's second try.

The conversion was missed and with nine minutes remaining West Park increased their tempo.

A break from the base of the scrum by Bennett brought play to within 15 metres of the visitor's try line but when Paul Minns tried to take the ball out on the blind side he was brought down by a Driffield player who then failed to roll out of the way and blocked the West Park players' access to the ball.

Instead of blowing for a penalty to West Park, the referee ignored the advice of his linesman and gave Driffield the put-in at the scrum and they were able to clear their lines.

However, West Park were not to be denied some reward for all their efforts and Craig Hardy drove over just to the right of the posts for a deserved score with a minute of stoppage time on the clock.

Chadwick added the conversion to bring the final score to 10-16 but West Park ran out of time as the final whistle went.

After the game, coach Peter Nash was full of praise for his players. "A team of individuals who came together without much pre-season preparation have played very well.

&quote;I am encouraged for the start of the league season and I think Driffield were very fortunate to come away with a win.

"We conceded a fortuitous try early on but we tried to play an expansive game and people like Eugene Grimes were immense, especially with the amount of pressure put on them," he added.

On Saturday West Park travel to Alnwick for the opening game of the Thwaites North Division Two league season.

West Park: Andy Stewart; Glen Kilvington, Matthew Stevens, Mick Potter, Jason Whitehead; Richard Lye, Ben Chadwick; Ralph Bennett, Matthew Cook, Tim Corrigan, Eugene Grimes, Craig Hardy, David Hayle, Paul Minns, Rees Priestman. Repl: Gee Chadwick, Darren Eyres.