Ilkley 70 Stockport 0

WELL, what can you say? Ilkley were damned if they did, or damned if they didn’t, but duly put a clearly struggling Stockport side to the sword by the margin of 70 points.

Such a result is hardly satisfactory from several angles – a side so destined for relegation has only pride to play for and to be fair, most of the visitors played accordingly, but they had no answer to Ilkley’s strike-force, which notched up an impressive 11 tries.

Ben Magee was once again the star attraction, but flanker Pat Power ran him close, with a text-book display of support-play, which earned him a well-deserved hat-trick.

Other Ilkley players shone too – Dan Lawrence had a fine rampaging game, interrupted by a quite unnecessary ten minutes for barging. Ben Bealy had a tidy debut at lock and Martyn Mitchell’s release from second-row to blind-side augured well for the second half of the season.

JH Johnson’s Damascene conversion to number eight finally resulted in a try and the home side was able to revolve the 18-man squad without injury problems. Next week’s fixture against Morley though might raise further questions, the Leeds side having apparently been busy recruiting and surprising Lymm away.

Referee Dave Charlton had a more than decent game, though a tad over-zealous at the line-out and more than a little myopic at the scrum – the feeds were outrageous.

Two cards were flourished with some style, the first to Lawrence and the second, a red, to Stockport’s eventually over-combative number eight, Sean Gill, whose trio of punches thoroughly deserved his early shower, ten minutes before half-time with the score at 22-0.

Stockport had enjoyed a fair bit of possession in the first half, which frustrated the Dalesmen no end, but tries by Rob Rekis, Dion Hendricks, Power and Magee had the bonus point in the bag before the break. Stockport could simply not cope.

The second half began with the match a forgone conclusion, not really what rugby at this level is about, but you have to play whatever is in front of you.

Ilkley duly notched up a further seven tries, which might well have been more, but for some over-confidence and lack of precision. Rowntree kicked three goals and the final score nudged Ilkley’s points difference to plus one.

There was certainly no time wasted in the second half, with Power and Regis striking early on and there were further scores at regular intervals.

Magee bagged his second and Power his third, before Johnson, Elliot Morgan and Chris Gemmell joined the party.

All credit to a plucky Stockport side who never gave up, even when a man light and credit too to the Dalesmen for clawing back their negative points balance.

With the season officially halfway through now, Ilkley can be reasonably satisfied with where they are and of course, they also have a match in hand, albeit a tricky one away at Kendal in January.

Having already beaten their next two opponents, Ilkley should be optimistic about finishing the year well. And for the old hands at Stacks Field, even the thought of doing the double over Morley and Hull is very satisfying and the actuality would be a very welcome early Christmas present indeed.