We were second best to Old Crossleyans in the first half, but once again managed to keep the home side from scoring tries and eventually worked our way back into the game

Promotion rivals Percy Park also won and their try bonus point against Team Northumbria takes them two points clear.

We began the game on the attack and were in the home 22 for the first ten minutes but couldn’t get over the line.

The home side eventually cleared and immediately  began pressuring us in the scrums. But  after 14 minutes they lost possession under the posts and Jonny Boatman picked up and ran the ball from in front of their own posts with Gavin Robinson feeding  Adam Larkin wide on the right.

He raced down the touchline and was only thwarted by a despairing shirt grab from home full back Chris Seymour.

Old Crocs came back and Gareth Foreman had to be on his toes as a kick through was chased down by three attackers. He just managed to slide himself and the ball over the dead ball line before crashing into the fence and netting behind the goalposts.

Gareth Foreman’s 45 metre penalty effort on the half hour effort was only just short, but Crocs had better luck five minutes later when Gavin Robson was penalised for offside on the 22, and Crocs’ player coach Chris Jones made no mistake.

Three minutes into the second half the same player had another attempt after we were penalised for wheeling the scrum. This time his effort from only 18 metres out screwed well wide.

That was a tunring point. With Adam Howard, a second half replacement for Ben Lloyd, driving at the home side we finally began to get Crocs onto the back foot.

Howard himself almost went over on 45 minutes only to lose the ball as he was tackled on the line.

Ten minutes later he was heavily involved as we mounted a series of forward drives on the home line. Stephen Stockdale was denied twice, and Howard almost got over as Crocs defended desperately.

But they went too far and referee Oliver eventually awarded West a penalty try which Gareth Foreman converted.

We continued to look the most likely to add to the score, but received a blow when Chocky Davies was yellow carded for handling in the ruck on 65 minutes.

Crocs attacked but the ball spilled and Andrew Foreman cleared. The visitors surged into the home 22 but Howard couldn’t take a lofted pass which bounced off his shoulder to veteran home prop Andy Day.  He passed wide, and with the referee allowing advantage, Crocs spun the ball along the line in their own 22.

Gavin Robinson and Luke Watson had been superb in defence all afternoon and they forced Crocs into dropping the ball  and Gareth Foreman quickly seized on the opportunity to send in Jonny Boatman wide on the right.

Referee Oliver opted to play a full ten minutes injury time, which was time enough for Dan Boatman to serve a yellow card for going off his feet and come back on again, but we held out comfortably.

One suspects more of the same will be needed at Driffield next week.

Old Crocs: 15 Chris Seymour,  14. Joe Baker , 13. Jack Hammond, 12. Neil Richardson, 11. Leigh Thomas 10. Chris Jones, 9. James Wainwright, 1. Mark Palmer, 2. Richard Wheale, 3. Andrew Day, 4. Rory Davis, 5. Kev McGill, 6. Navneet Sembi, 7. Simon Normanton, 8. Daniel Temm, 16. Tom Earle, 17. Richard Heighington
18. Tom Hammond

Pen: Chris Jones 35 mins

West: 15 Colin Cheslin, 14 Adam Larkin, 13 Luke Watson, 12 Gavin Robinson, 11 Andrew Cheslin, 10 Gareth Foreman, 9 Andrew Foreman, 1 Anth Carr, 2 Liam Bailey, 3 Adam Coates, 4 Ben Lloyd [Adam Howard 45], 5 Andrew Davies, 6 Dan Boatman, 7 Jon Boatman [c], 8 Stephen Stockdale,  reps not used 17 Stu Waites, 18 Simon Cavey.

Pen Try; 55. Try Jon Boatman 74.

Cons G Foreman 55.

Yellow Cards: Andrew Davies [68 minutes] Dan Boatman [75 minutes]