DISAPPOINTING Malton and Norton were given a lesson in commitment and endeavour as they were sent crashing out of the Yorkshire Shield by Skipton.

They went down 27-20 to a side currently four leagues below them.

Failure to convert early pressure into points let Malton down and Skipton were allowed to break free and set up a ten-point lead from a converted try and penalty.

Chris Creber and Ian Cooke combined with a good move for Creber to score and give Malton a lift.

But they appeared quite happy to just go through the motions as the hosts fought back tenaciously to score a further two well deserved tries before the interval.

Flu victim Liam Vaughan was introduced for the second period and brought more vigour to the Malton effort.

The gap was narrowed firstly when Tom Stephenson crossed following a threequarter movement and then David Webster dummied his way over.

However, Skipton regained the initiative with their fourth try and although Chris Robson responded by crashing over it was too little, too late for Malton.

Updated: 10:58 Monday, January 17, 2005