Latest News 
Fixtures & Results 1st XV
Report by Dave Campbell
Tries: Ratcliffe 1, 80min, Jeffrey 6min, Farrell 51min, Dennis 72min
Goals:
Pontefract: 22
Tries: Smith 11min Townsend 27min, Senior 78min
Goals: Novak Conversions: 27, 78min Penalty: 13 min
Almost five hundred spectators at a cold but sunny Silver Royd were treated to a try-fest by two teams determined to run the ball at every opportunity producing a game which was a cracking advert for Yorkshire One rugby.
An injury-hit home side with eight positional and personnel changes from last week kicked off in bright sunshine and went ahead with less than a minute on the clock; Tom Ratcliffe broke from the Pontefract ten metre line, chipped into the corner and outpaced the turning ‘Ponte’ defence to touchdown. Fly-half Tom Harrison added the extras with his unerring touchline conversion for 7-0.
A reshuffled pack with Jason Lowde starting at prop and a completely new second row pairing of Mikey Readman and Charlie Hoggard looked solid and from a scrum in the 6th minute flanker Luke Raines broke blind releasing wing Graeme Jeffrey who powered over wide on the right.
Trailing 0-12 the visitors took the game to Scarborough who defended well with back-rowers Raines, under-19 skipper Sam Warren and veteran No8 Matthew Else putting in some big hits but when the west Yorkshiremen won a lineout five metres out, lock Carl Smith barged over from close range to reduce the arrears in the 11th minute. And two minutes later when the home side were caught offside in front of their own posts, fullback Paul Novak kicked the resulting penalty to cut the deficit to four points.
The Seasiders then had some defending to do as Pontefract got their game going and only good work in midfield by Harrison, scrum-half Jake Rollinson and Jeffrey coming off his wing kept them at bay. However, during this period
Pontefract got their just rewards with a well taken close range try from flanker Andy Townsend in the 27th minute, Novak converting to take his side into the lead at 15-12 for the first time in the game. Neither side could add to their score and half-time came with
Scarborough upped the pace from the restart and following good work by Harrison, Rollinson and Raines, Pontefract prop Richard Maw killed the ball on his on 22 and
Tom Ratcliffe could have sewn the whole thing up two minutes later when he went for one of his trademark interceptions on halfway but this time the club’s most prolific try scorer couldn’t hold on to the ball and the chance went begging.
However the biggest cheer of the afternoon came two minutes later when Dennis swooped on a fumble by ex-England man Derek Eaves, outstripped the visiting defence to score his first try for the club.
With the visitors pressing for an equalising score in injury time, try-magnet Ratcliffe pounced on a loose ball in his own 22; hacked on, secured the ball and out-sprinted a posse of chasers to score under the posts from 70 metres out.
Man of the match: Luke Raines: Luke obviously has improved his fitness levels showing aggression and enthusiasm. His big hits, tidying up and his support in midfield were big contributing factors to
