Winning on road all very comfortable for Blaydon

ILKLEY BLAYDON 15 21

BLAYDON racked up another win on the road which, despite the closeness of the final score, was a comfortable enough victory.

In difficult conditions on a sodden pitch, Blaydon were much the more decisive and, although the home side huffed and puffed with plenty of possession, they could make little progress against an excellent defence.

Winger Jack Appleton applied the final touch to a smart handling move to get the ball rolling and Jamie Guy was on target with the conversion. Ilkley fly-half Charles Ramsay pulled back three points for his side with a simple penalty in front of the posts but, by the interval, some intense pressure from the Blaydon forwards involving much recycling resulted in a try for skipper Keith Laughlin, with Guy again adding the extras.

Leading 3-14 at the break, Blaydon continued to press and were rewarded with a third score when Matt Jenkinson went over. Guy landed his third conversion but that was to be the end of Blaydon’s scoring.

As they sat back with a comfortable lead, the home side were allowed to come more into it in the final quarter and grabbed a try through their winger Rick Talatio. Their deficit was now 8-21 and, in the final play of the game, another seven points were secured when lock-forward Ben Waddington crossed in the corner and Ramsay put over the conversion.