A crowd of around 1,200 gathered for this eagerly anticipated derby clash - the first renewal of such an occasion since Otley's promotion season in 1999/2000. In the last 7 season's of playing in National One, Otley have learned how to be streetwise when needed and they engaged these skills to great effect to secure the win at a place where sides will find it difficult to pick up points.

Playing with the slope and the wind in the first half, Wharfedale were always going to throw the kitchen sink at the visitors. They were soon camped in the Otley '22 but had an early indication of how difficult it was going to be to breach the Otley black & white wall.

Relieving box kicks from scrum-half Guy Easterby allowed Otley to inch away from their '22. While Wharfedale looked dangerous on the counter-attack, they just lacked the cutting edge when it mattered. Their frustrations were then heightened when a drop-goal attempt went wide and a penalty attempt brushed the upright on the wrong side.

Otley missed a long range penalty attempt of their own shortly before another incursion into the opposition half where Otley ruthlessly seized their opportunity. Second-row Paul Williams collected a difficult ball at the back of the line-out and plunged into the Wharfedale '22 with a strong run. The ball was transferred to the right where fly-half Ian Shuttleworth made the initial half-break before offloading to centre Rob Whatmuff. Whatmuff then gave the scoring pass to right winger Steve Parsons who rode the last tackle to crash in at the corner. Rob Kitching fell short with the conversion attempt in what were difficult conditions all afternoon for the kickers.

Wharfedale had another visit into the Otley '22 just before half-time and turned down a penalty kick at goal, instead preferring to kick for the corner. From the resulting line-out Wharfedale launched a catch-and-drive manouevre which was aggressively dismantled by the Otley pack. In contrast to the previous weekend's infamous refereeing decision, the Otley pack were this time correctly rewarded with a turnover in possession and the half-time whistle immediately sounded. Otley led 0-5 at half-time.

Now playing with the elements, Otley were able to clear any danger with long clearing kicks although the wind did seem to drop for the second period which was played under floodlights.

Otley suffered a setback just after the re-start when No.8 Matt Stockdale was sin-binned for not rolling away. As a result, Otley continued to play in defensive mode and it took 20 minutes for Otley to register their second try. Following a strong run by the returned Stockdale, a penalty was kicked into the corner flag by Shuttleworth and Otley's powerful pack rumbled towards the Green Machine's try line. Replacement hooker Scott Plevey, on loan from Doncaster, peeled away from the rolling maul to crash over for his first try for the club. Kitching did not land the extras but Otley led 0-10.

Wharfedale refused to give in but continued to be thwarted by an impregnable defence led by Otley's rugged midfield defensive duo of Whatmuff and Paul Mooney.

Otley began to put a squeeze on proceedings with the Otley centres now punching holes into the Green's midfield. Kitching then kept his nerve to land a 40 metre penalty attempt after 70 minutes to make it 0-13 to Otley and the game seemed out of the hosts' reach.

Five minutes later Wharfedale's endeavour proved their undoing as a long pass 30 metres from their line went loose. The bobbling ball was collected by Shuttleworth who raced away from the covering defence to score his side's 3rd try and wrap up the win.

Both Wharfdale coach Peter Hartley and Otley boss Peter Clegg seemed implicitly content with their charges. "If we had played like that against other sides in the division, we would have scored a lot of points," lamented Hartley.

"We joined in the frivolity of throwing the ball about when we needed to do a job on them," snarled Clegg. "We did that later on."

Otley now look forward to the next challenge which sees a trip to Cornwall to take on Redruth.

Wharfedale: Whaites; Hart, Malherbe, Andy Baggett (capt) (M Bedworth 50), Horsfall; Gray, Doherty; Dickinson, Hindle, Steel, Lister, Capstick, Clements, Allen, Baldwin

Otley: Kitching; Parsons, Whatmuff, Mooney, Smith; Shuttleworth (capt), Easterby; Trethewey, Steele (Plevey 50), Fullman; Snowball, Williams; Tiffany, Bland, Stockdale

Referee: N Higginson (RFU)

MATCH STATISTICS

Wharfedale 0

Otley 18

Tries: Parsons, Plevey, Shuttleworth

Pens: Kitching

Click here for photos of the match taken by Paul Barrett

Click here for individual league records