SINCE the split of the Counties Four Yorkshire league in January, to North and South, the fixtures for Otliensians’ first XV have been somewhat sporadic.

This hiatus gave director of rugby Pete Tempest a little more time to focus his energies on the second team and that resulted in a superb game last Saturday, when ‘Ensians seconds welcomed Selby fourths.

Being the first second team game for almost five years, and with many ‘retired‘ players making a temporary come back, the atmosphere was buoyant for the 100 strong crowd down at Chaffers field.

With an age range for the team of over 40 years, there were two father and son combinations in Peter and Alex Gillson as well as Richard ‘Mesher’ Smith and his son Seb.

Club stalwart Brett Tenniswood is 60 years old, but he still proved fit enough to get stuck into a seconds fixture.

After an electric start by 'Ensians early tries were scored by Alex Gilson and Finlay Vigurs-Pearson in the first five minutes, with one converted by Matt Haley.

After that shock to the system, Selby settled down and play was very evenly contested for the vast majority of the game.

The home team scoring two further tries by Lewis Exley and Andrew Diamond with the former adding the extras to one of those, and Selby scoring a converted try in the same period.

A superb individual try by 'Ensians man Andrew Diamond completed the scoring in the last few seconds of the game giving the home team a 29-7 victory.

The game was a most encouraging development, which hopefully will result in more second team games this season.