11:31am Tuesday 8th April 2008
By John Hope
A blank weekend in the league calendar was filled with an interesting club match against old friends and local rivals Skipton.
The two sides had locked horns in a titanic struggle in the opening round of the EDF Vase in October, the Dalesmen just edging it in extra-time with a try from Liam Frost. Since then both sides have enjoyed substantial progress in the leagues with Martin Whitcombe's Skipton side confirming promotion from Yorkshire Two last week.
Ilkley, of course, are still battling it out for the play-off spot in the league higher. Their big game comes this Saturday at Selby where they take on the only other team in the league that can grab the play-off spot. A big crowd is expected to travel to Selby.
The club ask all its many supporters to make the trip and cheer the team on. They will need it but they are in fine form and this match confirms their status at the top of the premier league of Yorkshire league rugby.
Hail stones and blue skies greeted the teams as they took to the well-groomed Stacks Field. Ilkley had gone with an almost full-strength side, only Terence Sibanda, Stuart Vincent and Dan Wright were unavailable.
Coach Kay took the opportunity to experiment a little, with Peter Shanks taking the full back role. Jim McBirnie returned to centre, Anthony Cadman took the number ten berth, Pete Turner was on the wing, otherwise the team was as the one that had snatched victory at Sheffield.
Skipton brought their promotion winning first team but must have had a communication break down as only 14 men took the field to start.
Ilkley's coach Kay soon recognised the inequality and 'volunteered' the versatile Andy Matthews to fill in for them at full-back. Such is the enthusiasm of the Dalesmen's squad that they still had four bench players available all of whom got a good run out.
The game started out as though there were no tomorrows. Soon Skipton had a penalty awarded by excellent 'players'' referee Nigel Dickinson. Sean Barraclough slotted the kick to give his side an early lead.
The Dalesmen shook off the early shock and soon were on the offensive. Simon Smith set up the first try for Peter Shanks to do exactly what his coach had asked him, bursting through onto a great pass from Cadman to make the extra man and score. He must have left his kicking boots at home - his kick was unusually wide. 5 - 3 the lead.
Next Cadman put in the inch perfect chip and chase for the fleet of foot Jim McBirnie to collect and waltz through the first line of defence and feed big Jon Hutchinson. Hutchinson chose discretion rather than glory, finding Liam Frost on his shoulder to charge in for try number two. Again the kick was off target.
A scrum two metres from the Skipton line following two charge downs was well won. Stuart Brewer picked up and forced his substantial way over for the third score. Shanks made no mistake with this one, 17-3.
Then came the first of two unfortunate injuries. The splendid Richard Kemble succumbed to a blow on the head.Whilst the Dalesmen were still reorganising Skipton's Mark Davidson found an acre of space off the back of a scrum and went over to put his side right back in there at 17-10.
Then Peter Shanks suffered an injury which sidelined him.
The two teams slugged it out until half-time.
Ollie Coughlan and Mark Hibbs entered the fray.
Ilkley totally dominated the half adding three tries. The first from Liam Frost, who swooped onto a Skipton error and charged in from 30 metres eluding three or four defenders in the process.
Next Jim McBirnie picked up a ball that had first come from Cadman's boot and then delicately under Hutchinson's legs before arriving in the hands the dancing centre. He scored under the posts.
Gareth Archer and Andy Rhodes got their run outs off the bench.
Hutchinson and that man Frost ended the scoring spree, again combining well after sustained Ilkley pressure to make the final score 36-10.
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