High-tempo Keighley crush Ripon

A RESOUNDING performance from a spirited Keighley team resulted in nine tries in this Yorkshire Division Two encounter.

The hosts were quickly out of the blocks, playing a high-tempo game, and they crossed the Ripon try-line twice within the first ten minutes.

Liam Everett finished off some great handling in the backs to score in the corner, Alex Brown adding the difficult conversion, and the second came from lock Josh Hannah, who capitalised on some fine handling from prop Craig Spencer to sprint 40 yards to score in the corner.

With a Ripon player in the sin bin, Keighley took advantage of the extra space with a second try for winger Everett, and fly half Brown added the fourth try when he finished off a strong break by wing forward Shaun Minikin before landing the conversion.

Having gained a four-try bonus point, Keighley relaxed and allowed Ripon back into the game, some excellent play from full back Joe Duffield and winger Glenn May putting the Keighley defence under pressure but the visitors' forwards were unable to add continuity to some good counter-attacks.

The second half started slowly, both teams being bogged down in a midfield battle.

But eventually Keighley full back Alan Ebbrell drew defenders to release centre Ben Blackwell, who scored under the posts, Brown converting.

A dominant Keighley scrum in the Ripon 22 then gave scrum half Olly Mitchell the chance of a half-break and a pass to Blackwell on the charge, who broke through the defence to score under the posts, Brown once again adding the conversion.

A few minutes later, Keighley’s other powerful centre Adam Horsfall broke through to give Blackwell the opportunity to give the final pass to Hannah, who scored wide out.

As the game came to a close, wing-forward Tom Lowther capped a strong performance when he broke through a line-out to score and, almost on the stroke of full time with help from Spencer, he added his second try.