Ilkley 13 Sandal 33
A visit to Stacks Field was never going to be an easy proposition and so it proved but the Milnthorpe Green started well and were nine points up after ten minutes through three superbly struck penalties from full back Chris Reakes. Ilkley rallied through their forwards and pulled back to within one score when centre Shanks kicked a penalty. The Milnthorpe Green men continued to worry the home side by continually keeping the ball in hand and were rewarded when pressure in the home twenty two saw centre Danny Mitchell blasted his way over the line under the posts with Reakes converting. Ilkley then showed their quality as they worked their way into the Sandal half and following a midfield scrum twenty metres out they broke blind from and winger Frost crossed wide out to cut the deficit to sixteen points to eight at the break.
Ten minutes into the second half, Sandal further increased their lead when from quick lineout ball winger Simon Frewin entered the line to create the overlap for his fellow wing man Dave Ell to touch down in the corner and extend the lead to thirteen points. The home side were now forced to come out and play and they responded when pressure finally told with winger Frost crossing for his second in the corner on fifty minutes. From this point on Sandal dominated the rest of the game territorially and following a lineout fifteen metres out Sandal forwards drove Man of The Match flanker Lee Norris over the line to touch down and effectively close the game off. Ilkley worked hard to breach their visitors defence but found themselves continually being knocked backwards and unable to get out of their own half as they continued to try and break through around the ruck area. As the home side began to tire gaps appeared and from turnover ball on halfway captain and scrum half Matt Hemingway went blind and superbly fed winger Dave Ell who had drifted outside his opposite number and he sped away from fifty metres to dive over and extend the gap to twenty points. Further opportunities appeared but the home defence stood firm and the final whistle meant that with Selby losing at home to Scarborough Sandal went clear at the top of Yorkshire One with their third away win of the season and are now unbeaten after five games of the campaign.
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