The eagerly awaited clash between the relegation battlers was long awaited as both Selby and Yarnbury have been trying to break away from the relegation bottom two places for the last few months.Yarnbury form has picked up in the last two months but a convincing home win is overdue and coach Bob Hood sensed a much needed win against old rivals Selby at Brownberrie Lane.Yarnbury welcomed back experienced wing forward Joe Bennett to add some ‘grumble and grunt’ to the forwards against a big pack assembled by the opposition who were obviously going to work the ball tight .Yarnbury had a strong bench with all forwards in second row James Falgate ,back row Russ Gomersall and prop John Dodgson on the bench to to give maximum weight on the park to counter the Selby pack.

For the home side the first half was impressive on a soft pitch due to incessant rain.Yarnbury took the fight to Selby and attacked in their half for most of the opening half forcing Selby into a series of errors in their efforts to get the ball in the rucks.Stand Off Kieran Davies opened the scoring with a penalty just after full back Will Marshall and winger Jack Brown just failed to touch down a kick through on the right.He then missed another similar chance on seen minutes but kicked two more on 22 and 26 minutes following a yellow card for Selby centre Alex Webster for persistent offside by referee Mike Ramsey (North Yorks Soc) who was managing the game expertly.Yarnbury were working the ball wide when the opportunities allowed after securing good but slow ball in the mud.Selby were defending well in the middle of the park but Yarnbury worked the ball first left and right for winger Jack Brown to eventually outstrip the cover and score an outstanding team try on 33 minutes converted by stand off Kieran Davies.No more than the attacking play of the home side deserved particularly the pack who kept the pressure on the Selby side and stand off Kieran Davies relieving attacking pressure with the boot on the few occasions Selby managed to get out of their half.Yarnbury had thrown off the shackles of defeat and were playing with confidence which has been growing over the last two months.

Kieran Davies kicked another penalty from wide right on the stroke of half time to stretch the Yarnbury lead to 22-0 at the break surely a winning margin.All they needed now was three more tries for a five point win with the bonus point?

Unfortunately,complete dominance which was expected to be carried on after the break did not materialise and hear credit must go to the opponents who started the second half as a team transformed and put down their marker in the ten minutes after the break with two tries.The first from second row Mark Tanner after a succession of forward carries and a second by scrum half Danny Wilkinson who broke away on the left from a ruck to kick and score in the race for the line.Full back Josh cruise converted both in spectacular fashion and suddenly the Yarnbury dominance was tested but normal service was resumed by the three quarters with a sweeping move out right which saw full back Will Marshall come into the line and score Davies converting for a Yarnbury second try.

Selby were not finished and were looking to close the gap and scored a third try set up by the pack for forward James Hunt to touch down despite good Yarnbury defence.Cruse could not convert.A third and final try was scored by stand off Kieran Davies which he converted to give Yarnbury an impressive 36-19 victory but without the bonus point for a fourth try that maybe their efforts deserved.However they are out of the relegation places and two weeks before the next league game away at high flying York.