Yorkshire Division Three: Baildon 20 Aireborough 23

FROM having one foot in Yorkshire Division Four, Baildon now have a foot and a half in there after losing a derby that had a remarkable start and a remarkable finish.

Home full back Dan Fletcher returned the kick-off and his chase down the hill was so good that he outpaced two dawdling Aireborough defenders to win the race to the ball.

All he had to do was catch it and dive over the line but, in his over-eagerness, Fletcher knocked on and the chance was lost.

Baildon were attacking a minute later when fly half Nick Lister's popped pass was intercepted, and visiting skipper Ollie Catherall scored an interception try from 55 metres out.

That ten-point swing was forgotten by the 80th minute, however, when Baildon, who had been trailing 18-8 for most of the second half, went ahead when centre Luke Strauss appeared to knock on with the try-line begging.

However, referee Sean Loftus (North Yorkshire Society) ruled that the ball had gone sideways, and Strauss was the first to react, picking up the loose ball to score.

Lister added the penalty to put Baildon 20-18 in front, but they had victory snatched from their jaws in the 12th minute of injury time – several players and referee Loftus suffered from cramp hence the long second half – when former Bees prop Simon Hill went over in the left-hand corner to win it for Aire.

Before the match, Baildon's player-coach Robbie Hill had said that they needed to win three of their last five matches to stay up.

Baildon host second-placed and Twickenham-bound Old Otliensians on Tuesday, but Jenny Laners skipper Dan Cookson said: "There are four matches left and we haven't given up yet.

"We haven't been getting the rub of the green but have to be more clinical when we get our opportunities.

"If we do that we will be fine, but we must realise that rugby matches last for 80 minutes and not 75.

"However, we had three 17-year-olds playing and I am proud of the rugby that we have been playing."

Aireborough have now won six of their last seven matches, and built an 18-8 lead up the slope.

Firstly though, Baildon levelled at 5-5 in the eighth minute when they showed good continuity, including a neat dummy by prop Joe Robinson, to put Lister over in the left-hand corner.

His 13th-minute penalty gave the hosts an 8-5 lead but the Jenny Laners could not then capitalise when Lister put Hayden Peers away four minutes later.

The right winger cut inside the first two defenders and something looked on, but he then ran sideways looking for support and the chance was lost.

Aireborough levelled in the 20th minute when Holdsworth landed a penalty, conceded by a back-pedalling Baildon defence, and things got worse for the hosts nine minutes later when No 8 Jonny Mackey got his 15th try of the season for Aire, with Holdsworth's conversion making it 15-5.

Baildon's attacks were generally too frantic, and Holdsworth extended Aire's lead with an injury-time penalty.

That is how the score remained for 27 minutes in the second half until Baildon showed their flair in running the ball from their own line, with brothers Luke and Harrison Strauss leading the way for centre Matty Robinson to finish things off.

However, perhaps not realising just how much time was left (23 minutes according to referee Loftus), Robinson tried to drop kick the conversion from in front of the posts and missed.

The discrepancy in the times was accounted for by several players suffering from cramp, particularly Aire winger Tom Copsey, and even referee Loftus had to roll down his socks and give his legs a rub, a legacy of a ten-kilometre run the day before.

Copsey's problems were down to it being only Aireborough's second game in six weeks, while team-mate Stu Wilson also suffered.

Then came that dramatic finale as the visitors from Yeadon climbed a place to sixth, while Baildon are eight points from safety and facing derbies with Wibsey next season, rather than Aireborough.