Acklam 7 points v York 61 points

Acklam 7 York 61

After a promising start to the match Acklam were well beaten by a very good York team.
Acklam played with the wind in the first half. At the start York kept possession well until a great break by Acklam scrum hall Chris McRobert after 5 minutes resulted in the home team being camped on the York line and flanker Paddy O'Brien eventually forced himself over for a very good try. Full back Danny Ashton kicked a difficult conversation to give Acklam an early 7 nil lead.
York then came back strongly, good defence by Acklam kept them at bay until the 16th minute when concerted York pressure and a couple of missed tackles enabled them to score under the posts to level it at 7 -7. Acklam came back with some good interplay between forwards and backs. However, after 32 minutes a strong York scrum enabled them to eventually drive over for a try, again converted to give them a 7 --14 lead. Shortly afterwards a York kick over the top looked harmless but unfortunately in trying to field the ball 2 Acklam defenders collided with each other to give the York player following up a clear run to pick up and score another converted try to take the score to 7 -21. A few minutes later Acklam number 8 Tom Grinstead used his strength to break through a number of tackles and set up a great position for Acklam. In the 36th minute stand off Marcus Sudron went through and Acklam looked certain to reduce the arrears, only to be harshly penalised for crossing, leaving the score 7 -21 at half time.

York started the second half with a bang and Acklam were unable to prevent them from scoring 3 further converted tries in the first 10 minutes after the break to put them out of sight at 7 -42. Acklam then defended doggedly, until further York tries in the 60th and 63rd minutes stretched the away side's lead to 7 - 54. Acklam continued to battle bravely and were pressing for a late consolation try right at the end of the match when they spilled the ball deep in York's half, which a York player picked up to complete Acklam's misery by scoring a breakaway try to make the final score 7 - 61.

McRobert and Grinstead were the best players for an Acklam team which, although eventually well beaten, never gave up.

Report by Paul I'Anson