Heath’s title hopes suffer blow as rivals Cleck claim the spoils
Regional 1 North East high flyers Heath missed the chance to extend their unbeaten run to six games when they lost 23-17 at home to near neighbours Cleckheaton on Saturday.
Heath quickly got into their stride and after waves of attacks, Chris Johnson landed a penalty with four minutes gone.
Cleckheaton responded with a penalty of their own on the quarter hour but more slick rugby from the hosts resulted in Ben Stringer collecting line-out ball before Joe Morrison scored in the corner. Johnson added the extras.
Once again, the visitors responded and on the half hour mark scored an unconverted try to peg the score back to 108 going into the break.
Cleckheaton came out all guns blazing on the resumption and they were rewarded with an early penalty to take the lead for the first time.
Back came Heath and Chris Moore drove into the visitors defence, supported by Dan Fleming before Harvey Keighley-Payne powered over for a try, converted by Johnson, to put the home side 17-11 ahead on 55 minutes.
The end-to-end action showed no signs of let up and Cleck’s response was another converted try that put them a point ahead once again.
It got better for the visitors when they crossed again to lead 23-17 with seven minutes remaining.
Heath pressed for a score but Cleckheaton produced a dogged defensive display in the closing stages to secure the victory and put a dent in the hosts’ title hopes.
Heath will hope for better fortunes when they entertain Alnwick on Saturday.
Meanwhile, there was better news for Heath Hawks who travelled to Keighley and notched up their fifth successive win of the year, beating the hosts 47-21.
Keighley were already 21 points down when they had their best spell of play, but still went into half time 28-0 adrift.
The Hawks continued their dominance into the second half but the hosts scored early on and then collected another two converted tries, just before the whistle.
Nonetheless, Heath had amassed an impressive score by then and ran out well deserved winners.
Man of the match was forward Pete Hampshire while fly-half Eddie Cartwright had a successful day with the boot, landing six conversions.