Bridlington 13 Ilkley 25

The Dalesmen secured another win on the road, though this one didn’t come easily, as a much-improved Bridlington tested Ilkley to the limit.

The visitors were the better side for most of the match, but tenacious defence, coupled with a less than flawless performance by Ilkley’s half-backs kept the hosts in the game.

It was deep into injury time before Paul Petchey’s try made the scoreboard reflect the balance of the game more accurately.

Ilkley took an early lead after good work by man of the match Stevie Graham.

The first of his many bullocking runs led to a penalty duly slotted by Josh Kimber for a 3-0 lead.

This did not last long as a line-out infringement by Ilkley gave Kiwi Lou Terewi a chance to level the scores.

Ilkley responded by applying concerted pressure and after a stern lecture and yellow card to Bridlington skipper Ryan Girking, an Ilkley catch and drive saw skipper Stuart Vincent slip a scoring pass to Alistair Monks. Kimber’s conversion stretched the lead to 10-3.

With Girking back on, Bridlington resumed their feisty game and they deservedly cut the deficit to when aggressive forward play earned another penalty, which Terewi converted.

The last ten minutes of the first half saw Ilkley in control of the game. The ball was flashed along the back line without any reward, leaving the half-time score at 10-6 to Ilkley.

The second half continued to be as scrappy as the first. Bridlington forward Stevens saw yellow early on and then Ilkley’s Iain McKenzie made a welcome return to replace Charlie Davy.

Ilkley’s continued edge over Bridlington was rewarded with a successful Kimber penalty to take the score to 13-6, but after a lengthy period of inactivity, when Bridlington full-back Zondo was stretchered off, the home side renewed their offensive.

This came to nothing, as a dropped pass in midfield allowed the alert Steve Nolson to scoop the loose ball up and sprint 30 metres for a well-taken try. Kimber converted for a 20-6 lead.

Bridlington responded with vigour and after Ilkley prop Tom Baxter received a yellow for not rolling away, Bridlington’s patience was rewarded when stand-off Terewi spotted a gap and touched down, followed swiftly by his conversion, to give Bridlington the hope of at least a losing bonus point, if not a draw.

Suddenly, Ilkley were back to the nail-biting scenario that all their supporters know, but don’t love.

Surely Ilkley couldn’t contrive to lose the game, as may well have happened in the past.

Ilkley started to leak penalties, but the seminal moment came when Steve Burns made the best tackle of the match on Brid centre Girking and from the resultant penalty, Ilkley cleared their lines.

With Baxter back on, the Ilkley support was in for a torrid last few minutes, referee Mike Ramsden adding a staggering 14 minutes injury time – thank goodness Bridlington have lights.

Another Kimber miss at goal proved to be irrelevant, as from the resulting drop out, Ilkley won a scrum and Graham’s fine run and perfectly-timed pass to the onrushing Vincent enabled the skipper to put in Petchey for the last score of the game.

It gave them a satisfactory result at a ground where gaining wins is never easy.