In the last week, much of the Wagon Lane Sports Ground had been under water – the river running by the ground overflowing with the heavy rain coming down from the dales. Luckily, the rain had held off, the river level dropped and the majority of Wagon Lane had dried out. This made for ideal conditions for the match between the Bees, sitting second in North One East with four wins from four games, and York in eighth place.

York had first kick off and looked to attack the Bees line from the off. On a foray into the York half, Bees were awarded a penalty but it was pushed wide by their number 10, Taylor. York went on the attack again and were awarded a penalty on 9 minutes which Declan Cusack converted, 0-3. Five minutes later, Sam Forbes had to leave the field with a knee injury to be replaced by George Davies. George’s first touch of the ball was to finish a great York move and score the try under the posts. Declan duly converted, 0-10.

Bradford & Bingley briefly came back with the award of two penalties which Taylor successfully converted, 6-10.Five minutes later, a flowing York move saw Sam Elliot finish at speed wide on the right to notch his first try of the afternoon. Declan converted to open up York’s lead to 6-17 at half time.

Shortly after the restart, York again forced their way towards the Bee’s line. Cade Robinson who was prominent in both attack and defence, drove over for a try - his first in a York shirt, 6-22. ‘Unbelievably’ Declan missed the conversion – his 100% record for the season had gone! Five minutes later, the Bees scored their first try but Taylor missed with his conversion attempt, 11-22. York were soon back on the front foot and Rob Hodges scored, finishing strongly to further increase York’s lead. The conversion was missed, 11-27.

Following a scrum infringement, Oscar Bell (on as a replacement) was yellow carded and York were down to 14 men for ten minutes. Bradford & Bingley used their numerical advantage to score out wide but the conversion was again missed, 16-27.
York went back on the attack and Sam Elliot again finished for his second try; the conversion was missed but York’s lead had been extended to 16-32. With ten minutes remaining, the Bees again scored out wide and the difficult conversion was again unsuccessful, 21-32.

York again attacked and just when it looked like B&B had cleared their line, the ball was tossed up into the open arms of George Davies who only had to 'fall over the line' to score the last try of the game which was successfully converted by Declan Cusack.

Final Score Bradford & Bingley RFC 21 v York RUFC 39