Yorkshire Division Two: Ripon 8 Keighley 51

KEIGHLEY turned on the style to overpower Ripon.

The hosts started well, however, and forced Keighley into conceding an early penalty that fly half Tim Jobling converted.

But after that, Keighley raised the tempo of the game, a series of slick attacks giving wing-forward Tom Lowther a run into the corner.

Continued pressure from the Keighley pack and hard running from their two big centres forced Ripon into offside positions and a string of penalties, Alex Brown managing to land two of them.

Centre Adam Horsfall then went over out wide on the stroke of half-time to increase Keighley’s advantage to 13 points.

They then forced the pace from the off after the break, and Horsfall went in the corner for his second try after a quick pass from a five-metre scrum, Brown adding the difficult conversion.

With the forwards grinding out the hard yards and their big centres running good lines, it was only a matter of time before the Ripon defence was breached again.

Prop Olly Sugden powered his way upfield, drawing a number of defenders before he managed to slip the ball to his brother, second-row Leigh, who scored under the posts, Brown again converting.

With an unassailable lead, Keighley were confident enough to throw the ball about, and looked to off-load at every opportunity.

Full back Rob Wilkinson joined the back line and carved open a stretched defence to score, Brown once more tagging on the extras.

Winger Alan Ebbrell then finished Keighley’s scoring with two tries after good approach work by Wilkinson, the in-form Brown adding both difficult conversions.

However, Ripon never gave up and, through sheer effort and determination, winger Ben Buckley got his just rewards with a consolation try in the corner.