Elland keen to recover after Shark attack
Karl Fairbank will demand huge improvement from Elland away at sixth-placed York Acorn in Division One of the Conference tomorrow. Elland were humbled 60-6 at home by Shaw Cross Sharks last Saturday and Acorn are of a similar standard to those foes. Fairbank’s men still have a six-point advantage over the bottom three.
The game was held up for an hour after half time when Joe Fradgley required an ambulance after sustaining a head injury. The Elland player was reported to have suffered no serious damage.
Sharks, among a group of teams closely packed in midtable, had the game at Greetland in the bag by half time after surging into a 32-0 lead.
A converted try after seven minutes, plus a penalty under the posts for an incident after the try, gave the visitors an eight-point start.
It was the beginning of a landslide of tries as Elland were not at the races.
A Shaw Cross player virtually fell over the line to make it 14-0 and less than five minutes later a walk-in try led to a 20-0 scoreline.
Elland’s defence was virtually nonexistent as Sharks added another before a slick backhand pass paved the way for Sharks’ fifth try of the half.
The visitors added another six-pointer before Fradgley was injured with 30 minutes to go following a collision.
When the game eventually restarted Cross added three more tries to surge past the half-century mark.
Elland finally got on the scoresheet when Gaz Web set up Luke Reed to score, but the visitors had the final say.
Judd Fairbank and Luke Reed showed more fire than most of Elland’s forwards. Illingworth were depleted for the trip to Kippax Knights but still registered a 36-20 victory inthe Yorkshire Men’s League Premier Division.
A long cut-out pass from Luke Sutcliffe was well gathered and finished by winger Adam Millns on five minutes ing wide on the right. Sutcliffe added a touchline conversion.
Good work from Graham Dobson set up a second as Sutcliffe again fed Millns to cross in the corner.
The Illingworth lead was extended to 16 points 0n 26 minutes, Dobson picking up the ball from a well-weighted grubber kick from skipper Andy McElroy to go under the posts. Sutcliffe converted.
Six minutes before the break winger Keenan Connolly replied in the corner.
Illingworth’s failure to deal with the second half kick-off led to Lloyd Harrison crossing. Nathan Waters converted.
However, Impressive Ryan Jepson hit back within three minutes, the kick hitting a post to leave the score 20-10.
The lead was cut to four points on 50 minutes when Danny Gill fielded a Sutcliffe kick on his own 20 and raced away to go under the posts. Waters converted.
Sutcliffe was unfortunate not to capitalise on a Josh Baldwin off- load, but did cross on 65 minutes following Brown’s good break down centre field and he added the goal.
A lovely pass from debutant Isaac Farrell set up Brown and Sutcliffe again converted.
Gill added his second with five minutes remaining, Dobson replying as storms commenced.