Latino Ceramics Aire-Wharfe Plate final: Old Otliensians A 29 Keighley A 70

KEIGHLEY have won their first senior silverware since Rob Riley's team lifted the Yorkshire Division Two title in 2002-03.

On a balmy evening at Chaffers Field, they ran in ten tries in defeating hosts Old Otliensians A 70-29 in the final of the Latino Ceramics Aire-Wharfe Plate final.

The home side were seeking a treble after promotion from Yorkshire Division Three last month and winning the RFU Junior Vase the previous Sunday at Twickenham.

But their second team were outpaced, going down to a strong Keighley second team.

Tries for the visitors came from centre Jonty Glendinning (4), full back Jake Duxbury (2), winger Jimmy Morton, second row Luke Carter, hooker Ryan Gibson and replacement Leigh Sugden.

Fly half Chris Meehan added two penalties and seven conversions, including one which bounced off both uprights.

Ensians never gave up and managed four tries, three of which came in the final quarter, by flanker Ben Smith, Matt Taylor, James Smith and Rob Lyon, with Matt Tenniswood adding two conversions and a penalty and fly half Kristian Keinhorst a conversion.

They also had three players sin-binned by referee Gavin Jones – Taylor, Keinhorst and Darren Cooley – which led to howls of protest from the home fans.

Keighley have reached the final of the major competition – the Aire-Wharfe Cup – five times and lost every one of them, but the only time when they may have thought that history would repeat itself in the plate final was when Ensians scored a converted try to go 8-7 down after a Meehan penalty and a Duxbury try.

Duxbury and Glendinning generally carved open the left-hand side of the Ensians defence in the first half with their searing pace, and the home cause wasn't helped when left winger Cooley flopped on Glendinning after he had scored his first try.

Further tries were added by Duxbury and Glendinning before half-time at which point Keighley led 30-10, and it was 65-17 before the home side hit back with two late tries before Glendinning bagged his fourth near the final whistle.

"This is a reward for the hard work of all of the players through the season," said Keighley's director of rugby Russ Gibson afterwards.