Dalesmen Denied Victory in Nail-Biting Yorkshire Clash

Following a very brief light shower the match kicked off in bright, sunny weather with referee Tom Hurdley officiating. Ilkley's travelling support was substantial and made their presence known after each superb Ilkley try. Harrogate's pitch was a clear improvement from Ilkley's last visit and held up well.

After an early exchange of penalties when Mr Hurdley's whistle made clear who was in charge, Ilkley's Harry Harrison caught Ilkley's kick off and scorched through several Harrogate players to score a superb try converted by Louis Anderson to lead 10 - 3.

Harrogate's tactics then became clear with their bigger and heavier forwards taking charge and scoring two unconverted pushover tries to lead 13 - 10 after half an hour. Ilkley moved the ball well in attack and it came as no surprise when Ben Magee made a trademark break to scorch through the Harrogate ranks to score with Anderson converting. Just as Ilkley looked like finishing the first half on top, Harrogate scored another try to go in 18 - 17 ahead.

Ilkley set about regaining the lead following the restart and with their side moving forward, Charles Morgen unleashed a fine drop goal to regain the lead. Ilkley were playing well and,  after another 10 minutes, Louis Anderson dived over to increase their lead to 27 -18 and Ilkley looked good for their lead playing good attacking rugby.

However, Ilkley  were unable to keep Harrogate's heavy pack out and, on 54 minutes Sam Brady was taken over the Ilkley line for a converted try. Ilkley pushed back strongly but Mr Hurdley's whistle seemed never far away. On 66 minutes Sam Brady scored again against a 7 man pack following an Ilkley yellow card. The conversion took Harrogate ahead 30 - 27.

To their credit Ilkley pulled out the stops with determined and exciting attacking play. Their supporters were roaring them on in the last 10 minutes of Ilkley charges until that man Magee raced forward swerving around several opposition backs to give wing Will Martindale a chance to score which he did with aplomb.

Anderson missed the conversion but it was time and Ilkley just had to hang on for the last few seconds albeit with 14 men. It was not to be as scrum half Ed Brown was penalised for a high tackle allowing McNab to convert the penalty from in front of the posts to take the match by a point. FT 32 - 33

This was an exciting game by enlarge with Ilkley's determined backs and heroic forwards deserving of the win. Unfortunately, the heavy penalty count of 3 to 1 against them along with 3 yellow cards just tipped the game in Harrogate's favour. Ilkley should be proud of their performance and can look forward with confidence to the return match at Stack's field on the 28th February.

Ilkley remain in 2nd place and must return to winning ways in the next game on 22nd November when Driffield are the visitors. This is the first of 5 consecutive matches in the run up to Christmas.