Ilkley 31 Alnwick 20

SUMMER returned to Stacks Field and blessed the fortress with a result that was one of hardest earned anyone will have had the privilege to witness.

The men from the Border country came with intent to plunder the spoils and they could so easily have done so.

Ilkley looked to have the game sewn up at 31-13, but yellow cards for forwards Tom Baxter and Pete Small induced a serious attack of the jitters.

Sensing their chance, Alnwick exerted heavy pressure which saw lock Josh Burgess escape some lack lustre tackles to pull a try back.

Then came the game's defining moment. There seemed little danger when the tireless Steve Graham cleared a loose ball downfield, but Alnwick scrum half Pete Moralee had other ideas.

He picked up and beat at least ten of the Ilkley team as he headed off towards an apparently undefended Ilkley try line.

Suddenly and seemingly from nowhere he was tackled virtually on the line by young Ben Magee. Where he came from to achieve this feat, no one will ever know.

The try was saved, and Ilkley had won a great game of real intensity and pace which was played in the right spirit.

The first half saw the Dalesmen go behind to a James Warcup drop goal after a slow start.

Josh Kimber missed two penalty attempts before he made amends with a lovely jinking run through Alnwick's cover to put his side 7-3 up.

Then it was Alnwick who came back with a vengeance, centre Andrew Small running in a good try after some rather untypical defence from the home side.

It was now the Dalesmen who were being severely tested but those final Alnwick passes were just not finding the man and the defensive lines were holding.

An Alnwick line-out on their 22 was turned. Ilkley strung together some superb phases and a sublime loop round move involving Kimber and Magee produced a try wide out to put Ilkley 12-10 up.

A warning of things to come saw a scrum with Ilkley going backwards at a rate of knots. Flanker Peter Maughan almost put his winger in but the defence held firm.

However on the stroke of half time Warcup sent another drop goal through the uprights to give the visitors a single point advantage.

How could coach Morgan get more? This was already an energy-sapping tussle worthy of any level of league rugby.

Within minutes of the restart, first Kimber produced yet another piece of magical footwork to score under the posts.

Then, after a high tackle on Kimber, Ilkley deployed last season's line-out and drive to great effect as Baxter was propelled over the line to make it 24-13 with 35 minutes to go.

With every scrum now looking like an advantage to Alnwick the visitors became increasingly threatening.

However it was that in your face defence and poor decision making by the visitors that once again sent Ilkley back up field.

Some great phases of play saw scrum half Tom Collard break the defensive line, sell a sublime dummy and feed the unstoppable Kimber who completed his hat-trick.

The game should have been safe but just when calm heads were required an outbreak of panic set in.

The crowd went quiet as the game turned with unfamiliar mistakes, missed tackles and the scrum in reverse. It was inevitable that Alnwick would score but it took some doing.

Finally Burgess escaped some lack lustre tackles to pull one back.

Somehow the courageous Dalesmen held out for fully 15 minutes with Alnwick opting for scrums instead of penalty kicks. Their invasion had been repelled.