Yorkshire Division One: Bridlington 48 Yarnbury 7

YARNBURY had a much-changed pack at the leaders, which was the last thing that they wanted.

Influential second row James Falgate and back-rower Tom Holden, who would have added bulk and go-forward, were absent.

Dave Penman continued in the front row, with Lewis Atha and John Dodgson on the bench, while Nathan Benton came in at short notice at scrum half, and Oliver Cashman provided cover from the bench, along with returning three-quarter Lee Mortimer.

Yarnbury immediately put themselves under pressure in their own 22, but defended well for 15 minutes before an infringement gave winger Steve Mellonby a penalty, and he soon added a try on the short side.

The visitors, competing well with limited ball, had good runs from full back Will Marshall and wingers Jack Brown and Alex Clark, but they lacked back-up.

Bridlington showed them how it should be done with a try by prop Paddy Waines, with Mellonby converting.

Yarnbury then had their best passage of play and, from a penalty and line-out, a planned move put leading try-scorer Brown through a gap to easily outpace the flat-footed defence.

Marshall converted but Bridlington immediately went down the field for winger Will Davies to score, Mellonby converting to make the half-time score 22-7.

In the second half, the leaders took advantage of Yarnbury's forward passes or when they offended by kicking straight into touch.

Dodgson, Cashman and Mortimer came on after Bridlington had extended their lead with two tries just after half- time by New Zealand prop Ryan Nepia and Mellonby.

The visitors, despite breaks by captain and centre Jason Avison, never stopped trying, but they were opened up by good back play.

The two final tries were disappointing as the cover was stretched towards the end of the match, with New Zealand fly half Matt Welch going over under the posts and, on the final whistle, No 8 Callum Sanderson getting on the end of a grubber kick that should have been cleared.

Yarnbury's second team played pluckily in only going down 24-15 at home to Wharfedale Foresters in the Yorkshire Premiership.