Siddal 14 Leigh Miners Rangers 25
Miners Rangers produced the perfect response to the previous week’s hammering with this first win at Siddal in almost a decade following a tremendous performance. With Jonny Youds returning from almost three months on the sidelines through injury to land six goals and a drop goal, and BARLA tourist Connor Ratcliffe also on the scoresheet, this was a fantastic performance from the Leigh side to enhance their top six credentials.
On Yorkshire Day God saw fit to douse His county in relentless rain and the miry conditions arguably contributed to the thrilling nature of the game. Siddal were missing a clutch of their fearsome pack but they had the elusive Shaun Garrod on song and his early break almost led to the opening try before Gareth Pain tracked across field to make the try-saving tackle. Pain then had a decisive contribution at the other end of the field as he nipped in behind the defence to touch down Jimmy Muir’s kick in-goal, Youds missing the conversion but adding a penalty soon afterwards. However on the quarter hour mark Siddal were level with some fine handling in the greasy conditions, quick hands putting Gareth Blackburn wriggling through the tackles and making the conversion for Chris Brooke a formality.
The game was a tight arm-wrestle in this first half and Miners had a golden opportunity when Taniela Bakoso spilled a kick-return inside his own ten metre zone but Miners themselves spilled the ball in surprise at this chance, with the resultant scrum set coming to naught. However Siddal continued to be their own worst enemies, straying offside from a goal-line drop-out and then holding down under the own posts to give Youds two routine penalty conversions for 10-6 at the break.
Years of experience had shown that such an advantage counted for little when Siddal were roaring down the Chevinedge slope in the second half and within minutes of the restart Garrod had almost worked the opening with Miners forced to concede the drop-out as they scrambled to survive the danger. The respite was short-lived though and two tries in the third quarter seemingly had Siddal set fair for victory. First Garrod and Danny Williams combined to send Freddie Walker through a gap to score and then Brooke’s kick wide on the last soared over Pain and Bakoso but fell perfectly for Billy Hammond to catch on the full and ground in goal to put his side ahead for the first time in the game. When Miners then saw a try disallowed after the ball was ruled to have run dead ahead of Adam Thomason’s despairing dive the visitors could have allowed the game to run away from them but a tremendous last twenty minutes saw them dominate to claim the spoils.
Miners regained the lead when Ratcliffe slipped through to score under the posts for 16-14 and with ten minutes remaining Youds nudged them further ahead with a drop goal. The margins were still tight though and it wasn’t until Jimmy Muir wriggled through the tackles to score to the right of the posts that the game was settled. In the closing minutes Youds landed a long-range penalty as Miners sealed a tremendous win.
Siddal – Freddie Walker, Gareth Blackburn, Gavin Stead, Billy Hammond, Taniela Bakoso, Shaun Garrod, Chris Brooke, Tom Garratt, Sean McCormack, George Ambler, Danny Williams, James Hanson, Craig Sanderson Subs – Liam Coe, Connor McCallum, Richard Lopag, Steve Hope
Tries – Blackburn (14), Walker (48), Hammond (56)
Goal – Brooke
Miners – Andrew Groves, Gareth Pain, Brad Hargreaves, Connor Partington, Jonny Youds, Jimmy Muir, Adam Thomason, Chris Bowers, Danny Jones, Darryl Kay, Tommy Parkinson, Mick O’Boyle, Mark Nicholson Subs – Connor Ratcliffe, Ellis Grimes, Martin Gray, Charles Tyson
Tries – Pain (6), Ratcliffe (65), Muir (76)
Goals – Youds 6
Drop Goal – Youds
