Ilkley 31 Wirral 26

WITH the pitch at Stacks Field waterlogged a phone call to Keighley revealed that the artificial pitch at Utley was available for hire at 4 pm.

It was booked despite the considerable loss of revenue and additional costs the club would suffer.

A brave decision that was rewarded with a warming victory.

A call to the Wirral club found them reluctant to travel to the neutral venue for such a late start. Some of their players had work commitments in the evening.

They were persuaded to make the trip and Ilkley managed to field a side that was only missing

Tom Milner, Dan Lawrence and Jack Maplesden due to arrangements booked for what was originally a blank weekend.

It was important that this rotten winter didn’t cause any more postponed matches and, given Ilkley’s outstanding performance on the 4G pitch at Billingham early in the season, it seemed like a good idea to switch venue.

Struan Connor and Blake Morgan filled the berths vacated by Milner and Maplesden, with Eddy Brown and new signing Matt Burke from Woodhouse Grove school on the bench along with the ever-reliable Henrik Ek.

The match itself started inauspiciously for the “home” side who found themselves 14 points adrift in as many minutes as Wirral took advantage of defensive lapses rarely seen from this team.

The ty scorers for Wirral were centre Daniel Harvey and his brother skipper Craig.

Fifteen minutes into an unpromising looking game the Dalesmen finally came to life.

Winger Josh Hall got away from his defender to score out wide.

Then inspirational skipper Elliott Morgan took a decent pass on the Wirral 10-metre line and saw a hole in the defence and scored under the posts. Ben Magee added the extras. Now we had a game.

The magic words of father, Rhys Morgan were badly needed at half-time. Whatever was said certainly did the trick.

As the icy blast seemed to gather intensity so did the Dalesmen. Suddenly the ball stuck in hand as Josh Cockerham and Ollie Holtam made the hard yards.

Joe Lowes, JH Johnson and Paddy Power began to take control in the back row. Lowes’ tackle count and pressure over the ball was awesome. Johnson and Power were bursting and bullocking their way upfield.

Elliott Morgan set up a fine try for Lowes under the posts to make it 19-14.

When Charles Morgan succumbed to a troublesome ankle Brown replaced him at stand-off.

Ben Magee weaving his magic from deep got away from the Wirral defence to put Hall in for his second try to make it 24-14.

Probably the try of the match was initiated from a Wirral knock-on in the Ilkley 22. Johnson picked up and burst up to 10 metre line. Connor received the ball and outpaced almost all defenders.

He slipped an inside pass to Magee. Magee who found Pat Atkinson in support to score. Magee’s conversion made it 31-14.

Steve Burns, who had put in a big shift on a fast surface, was replaced by Matt Burke for his first taste of North Premier rugby and Ek came on for Harry Wales.

When Blake Morgan limped off it meant his brother Charles had to return and put his injured ankle through 10 minutes more pain.

The floodlights came on and it seemed the Dalesmen’s job was done. That never applies to rugby at this level. Take your foot off the pedal against Wirral at your peril.

They struck back with two more good tries from Mark Gidman and Keith Mahon, mainly achieved with the help of defensive frailties.

At 31-26 the game was set for a tense climax with only a couple of minutes to play. Ilkley seemed to tense up and their errors encouraged the visitors.

There was a narrow escape Connor just scrambled a grubber kick away before the excellent Mr Chandrachud blew for time.