Goole 1st XV v Yarnbury 1st XV

match report by John Rawson

Goole 0 – 27 Yarnbury –Yorkshire 2 League

On the coldest most inclement day of the year with ‘stair rods’ horizontal into the Horsforth side faces for the first forty minutes Yarnbury showed a determined steel throughout the half from one to fifteen in a sometimes brutal forward battle against worthy opponents who take no prisoners.The conditions on this weekend saw many games cancelled but Yarnbury needed to get back into action after two postponed saturdays due to incessant rainfall in March.Just as has gone before the team was minus Prop Lewis Atha in Vietnam and second row Ian Maycock working down South.Also missing was influential hooker Chris Doyle and centre James White .Yarnbury were glad to see back wings Joe Pinnick and Josh Bateson with versatile Graham Maycock back in his centre role.Even so on such a weekend to travel into the teeth of the Easterly's was a worry on this day not only to suffer frostbite but then to get out and home to the warmth.

With such conditions the team were set up impressively buy the coaching staff of Bob Hood and Gary Walker and responded impressively into the biting gale.Kicking was out of the question and hard yards had to be made and the flankers George Bowen and Martin Rainey followed the examplee of No 8 Jimmy Cryan making hard yards down the pitch deep into Goole territory.However,Yarnbury also made light work of the conditions and the backs moved the ball with short crisp passing to make ground deep into the Goole twenty two but on three occasions were denied tries with turnover ball going to the home side on the five metre line after successive catch and drives.Goole were impressive in the Horsforth fixture and a hard side to dominate and today was no different although the half belonged to Yarnbury and were rewarded with a try late on in the left corner when the backs swept out of their half with good passing and a grubber kick through the line saw full back George Oldridge win the race to the touch down.No conversion was possible for stand off Danny Pound into the gale force wind even if he could see the posts at the time.

The second half saw some brief sunshine and the wind dropped before the hailstones came back both from the heavens and from the boots of stand off Pound and full back George Oldridge.Just putting the ball in the air and let Goole turn and try to recover in the Arctic conditions.Yarnbury went further ahead when No8 James Cryan scored from a drive at the scrum with Goole a man down for incessantly killing the ball at the breakdown,Pound missing the conversion.

Yarnbury second team hooker Tom Whitfield then got on the score sheet in an impressive period on the end of successive mauls the forward touching down from close in on two occasions following the play.A good return for his work on the ground earlier.This was after an impressive run from Captain and Centre Jason Avison cutting diagonally across the park just being cut down short of the line.Not being satisfied with a bonus point for the fourth try the Yarnbury backs made space on the left to outflank a tired defence for Josh Bateson to score the fifth and final try on the left wing.A pity he is not regularly available as his pace will be missed next week at West Park Leeds.However,with this commitment and an impressive scoreline most opponents in this league should worry particularly if the winter conditions persist further into March !