Yorkshire Division One: Yarnbury 6 Keighley 14

YARNBURY entertained newly-promoted Keighley, who knocked the hosts out of the Yorkshire Shield at the end of last season, giving the opening fixture added spice.

The home side had a very young-looking side out, with several newcomers in the ranks from the junior sides.

Jack Brown was in on the wing and Sam Oxley in the centre after impressive starts at Ripon, with Jason Avison the only senior player in the backs.

Chris Clark came in at scrum half also after impressing and, although the front five were as last season, the back row welcomed back captain and No 8 Jimmy Cryan alongside debutant juniors Tom Warriner and Lewis Wray.

After a period of Yarnbury pressure from the kick-off, Keighley broke out after an interception by Ben Blackwell, but the move was stopped on the 22-metre line.

Yarnbury again defended against the visitors' attacks, keeping their shape.

Keighley used their big centres Blackwell and Adam Horsfall down the middle but were stopped by Avison and Oxley.

Yarnbury were caught offside for Keighley stand-off Alex Brown to kick the first points in appalling conditions before Wray made yards to set up a home attack which led to a Yarnbury penalty.

The good work was undone, however, by the home side being offside at the resultant ruck,which turned out to be a recurring factor.

Full back Kieran Davies equalised for the home side when Keighley were offside, but they spurned two other kickable penalties, instead booting the ball into the corner seeking tries, only to be repelled both times through line-out mistakes.

However, Davies gave the home side a 6-3 lead at half-time with a long-range penalty from the right-hand side.

The game, played in driving rain, took a turn for the worse on the restart for Yarnbury with Keighley claiming the first try through back-row forward Josh Hannah, who scampered over from the 22-metre line after Brown saw a gap down the blindside to put in the try scorer.

Yarnbury claimed an obstruction in the build up but referee Jim Saunders (East Riding Society), who handled the game well, allowed the score to put Keighley in front on 42 minutes.

The conversion was missed but six minutes later Keighley extended their lead with another Brown penalty.

Home attacks were being stifled in the centre of the park and, as the rain cascaded down, Yarnbury also missed two penalties for the corner by the ball going dead.

In between, Brown slotted another penalty for Keighley to deny Yarnbury any league points.

Also they lost Cryan with a leg injury, which will see him out for a long stretch – two bitter blows at the start of the season.