Sherburn faced a tricky away tie at undefeated Dewsbury Moor A, with a young side made up with 16, 17 & 18 year olds this promised to be fast open game, whilst Sherburn are sporting a number of 16 & 17 year olds themselves this season there was still a smattering of shall we say more experienced players to bring the average age of the squad up considerably.

The game also saw a teenage referee taking control of the match and to his credit he did a decent job of keeping control of what proved to be a fairly fiery game from both sides. The game started as expected at a decent pace with both sides feeling each other out and trying to take control of the ruck speed and dominate the middle of the park. Strong carries from Kevin Dalton, Shaun Crossland, Dec Lewis, Ray Boyes saw the Bears making good metres against a stubborn Dewsbury defence.

Dewsbury were not letting the Bears have it all their own way however and kept in the arm wrestle, good defensive line speed and strong carries with the ball as well as a couple of impressive sweeping moves showed that the young Moor side were a well drilled outfit, 25 minutes in a couple of back to back penalties gave Dewsbury the opportunity to put a couple of sets together on the Bears line and some great footwork from their fullback following a couple of offloads saw him skip under the posts to open the scoring, the conversion was soon added to take the score to 6-0 to the home side.

The Bears however weren’t prepared to cave in and fought back with a brilliant midfield break from block busting loose forward Johnboy Fenwick setting up the position for the Bears to raid deep into Dewsbury’s half. A good cross field move involving hooker Connor Jordan, halfbacks Ronnie Roebuck and Sam Booth saw the ball fed to fleet footed centre Luke Hobson who crossed for a great try at the side of the sticks, Jordan added the extras to tie the scores at 6-6 as half time struck.

The second half saw the Bears opening brightly with Fenwick again featuring prominently with a series of crunching drives and tackles, however it was the Bears back line that looked equally impressive making great metres with the ball in hand, Hobson, Dan Bottomley, Layton Orford and Jordan Richards all looking impressive bringing the ball out of their own half. The Bears soon added to their tally as they took the lead for the first time, mercurial stand off Sam Booth again showed his sidestepping prowess as he danced and shimmied his way to score at the side of the posts, again Jordan added the goal as Sherburn took a 6-12 lead 10 minutes into the second half.

Dewsbury though are no mugs and following the Bears spurning a kickable penalty in front of the sticks, they broke away downfield to put pressure on the Bears line, a series of back to back penalties saw Dewsbury crash over out wide on the 5th set on the bounce, no conversion but the home side were back in the hunt. Dewsbury continued to apply the pressure from the kick off but the game degenerated into a series of minor skirmishes, first Shaun Crossland and Dewsbury’s second row forward were sin binned, they were quickly followed by Ronnie Roebuck and Dewsbury’s substitute front rower, this however seemed to calm the game down and the Bears took advantage with fullback Ben Pugh scoring a brilliant 80 metre try after picking the ball up from the base of the scrum and winning the footrace to the line against his opposite number, Jordan again added the extras to put the Bears into an 8 point lead.

Sherburn continued to apply the pressure now and finally started to click into gear, strong carries from brother Mickey and Kev Dalton along with Captain Ray Boyes saw the Bears advancing downfield before powerhouse Fenwick burst through the line from 15 metres out carrying 2 would be tacklers over the line with him, again Jordan converted to put the Bears 24-10 up with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Dewsbury’s frustration boiled over as another of their forwards was sin binned for two nasty high tackles on the trot, the Bears rounded the game of when centre Jordan Richards who enjoyed a torrid time from the Dewsbury home crowd showed his class by outpacing everyone on the opposition side to score a trademark try, Jordan failed with the conversion but the Bears were home and dry with the score line at 10-28.

Best for the Bears on the day was JP Plant Hire man of the match Johnboy Fenwick, when the big loose forward come centre is in this kind of mood few teams can live with him, a series of breaks and crunching tackles in each half marked him out as Sherburns danger man. Second place went to stand off Sam Booth for another polished display controlling the team around the park whilst third place went to fullback Ben Pugh who looks to be rediscovering some of last season’s early form. Supporter’s man of the match went to hard working scrum half Ronnie Roebuck, whilst the top tackler award was scooped by Captain Ray Boyes with 31 tackles.
Next up for the Bears is a home match against Moorends, the Doncaster team who gave the Bears a real lesson in their record final defeat at the end of last season. Kick off will be 2pm at Eversley Park.