Bridlington 3 Ilkley 0

Ilkley’s team bus for Saturday’s trip to the seaside was the one normally used by Leeds Carnegie for their away trips to play the likes of Wasps and Leicester.

After watching this rain and wind affected match at Bridlington on a bad day, one might have deduced the motivational entertainment on the coach had been a recording of the previous evening’s televised match between Carnegie and Sale which had ended in a mind numbing 6-3 defeat for the Headingley club.

It had been one of the lowest scoring matches ever shown on TV. How the Dalesmen managed to grind out an even lower scoring match is a total mystery.

They had something like 75 per cent territorial advantage and 60 per cent possession.

Ilkley were camped for long periods on the Bridlington line, particularly in the second half when they also had wind advantage.

They battered and bulldozed but couldn’t break a stubborn Brid defence who put up a magnificent rearguard action to hold the Dalesmen out.

Bridlington, who had lost by a big margin at Keighley the previous week were patently not the side of old.

Having resisted some opening salvos as the rain kept off for the first two or three minutes of the game, Ilkley gathered themselves and responded well to early threats from the home side.

Mr Hayne had made his intention to referee the ruck with an instant and iron discipline very clear, very soon.

His intervention had already produced a penalty a piece. Brid were awarded a second when Andy Matthews was upended and smashed to the ground and penalised for not releasing on the Ilkley ten metre line. Unjust?

Well, in Ilkley eyes at least, the whistle was blown a bit soon.

However it was close enough with the wind behind for scrum half Norton to thread his kick safely through the sticks and give his side an early 3-0 lead.

Brid were buoyed by this early advantage but soon became bogged down by inept handling which slowly handed the territorial advantage to the Dalesmen.

Tuli Makaafi, Rich Greenfield, Stuart Vincent and Matthews all had decent runs, Nick Heron sniped from the base of the scrum but cold hands and poor passing options thwarted any open play chances.

The driving maul from the line-out turned out to be the most potent weapon in the locker but they simply could not breach the Brid line. The loss of Hamish Pratt just ahead of half time proved crucial.

Pratt’s ability to wriggle over through gaps which aren’t really there was probably the one element that could have produced that all important score.

The second period was much the same with the Dalesmen looking the more likely to score . Brid only entered the Ilkley 22 in possession on two occasions in the whole half.

Help was given to the Dalesmen by Mr Hayne enabling Phil Howell to play the Brid touchlines time and time again. When they got to within touching distance of the line it was Mr Hayne who came to Brid’s rescue penalising the Dalesmen on too many occasions.

The absence of a place kicker of proven reliability has dogged the Dalesmen’ last three matches. Missed goals have cost them dearly.

Nobody in the Ilkley camp can criticise those who have stepped up to the plate, but here at Brid the prospect of a kick at goal seemed to torment Ilkley to the point where at least two penalties which might just have been successful were used to gain territory instead.

It was only with two minutes to go the Howell had a goal attempt but it went agonisingly wide by a couple of feet from out wide.

A 15minute cameo debut from what is clearly a prodigious talent in fly half Tom Bills gave some cause for optimism, as it appeared he had made the vital breakthrough with almost the last move of the match, but it wasn’t to be.

The Ilkley scrum worked well and was never really troubled due largely to the work of Josh Cockerham, Jon Hutchinson and John Cooksey.

The line-out too operated well, with Pratt, Callum Gillon, Kris Stafford and Pete Small in pretty much full control.

All in all the Dalesmen can count themselves unlucky to have a solitary bonus point to show for their trip to an unwelcoming east coast.

At least the warmth of the splendid welcome received from friends of old at Brid has not diminished.

It is to be hoped the team watched something far more entertaining on the in-flight entertainment on the journey home.

This week York visit Stacks Field for the last 3pm kick off before the clocks go back and the starts get earlier.