New Earswick All Blacks 11

Thatto Heath Crusaders 7

A BELOW-par performance and some dubious decisions saw Heath bundled out of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup at the second round stage.

Despite some solid defence early on, ill-discipline gave All Blacks' full-back and man of the match, Dave Carling five shots at goal, of which he kicked three to put them 6-0 ahead in the first quarter.

A fracas midway through the half -- resulting in Heath second-row David Lloyd and New Earswick's Jamie Danzill being sin-binned for fighting and home hooker James Panell shown the red card for kicking -- was the only other point of note in a dire first 40 which was continually disrupted by the sometimes unnecessary interruptions from the touch officials.

Heath started the second half with much more purpose and within five minutes looked to have crossed for the first try of the game when centre Anthony Marsh collected a kick through to the left corner by winger Mike Woods. Unfortunately, Marsh was adjudged to have clipped the corner flag as he touched down.

On 53 minutes, Marsh was again on hand again to 'score' in the lefthand corner following a grubber kick by loose-forward Chris Honey. But this too was disallowed following the intervention of the far-side touchjudge for an alleged forward pass some two or three plays beforehand after the referee had waved play-on! And playing numbers were then evened when Honey was dismissed for alleged verbal abuse of the same official.

Heath piled on the pressure but, to their credit, the All Blacks' defence dug in and managed to keep the visitors out until the 63rd minute.

A deep kick by Carling looked to relieve the pressure but a strong 40-yard return by his opposite number Wayne Jackman set up the try. From the play-the-ball, stand-off Darren Harris put Marsh through a gap and the centre took the ball to the last line of defence before releasing Woods with a magnificent 20-yard ball for the wingman to dive over in the corner. Jackman stepped up to level the scores with a tremendous touch-line conversion.

Five minutes later Harris looked to be over following a break by Woods but again a penalty decision for a double movement cost Heath dearly.

Harris was soon on the scoresheet though, slotting over a neat one-pointer after substitute Mark Hayton had set up a good position with a jinking run down the middle of the park.

With three minutes remaining, Carling levelled the scores with a long-range drop goal and extra time looked imminent.

However, in the final minute Carling re-gathered his own kick through to score in the righthand corner. The conversion attempt from the last kick of the game went wide.

The Marple man of the match award went to Lloyd who put in a strong all-round performance, with prop Geoff Williams and fellow second-row Paul Hatton supporting well.