Thunder 24, Knights 56

The visitors to the Thunderdome had seen their early 12-0 lead evaporate and Gateshead, drawing level on the half-hour mark, had their tails up and were growing in confidence.

But, just when the Knights needed a bit of inspiration, Jim Elston's dancing feet brought him darting and dashing to the fore, as two pieces of brilliance swung the game York's way.

Firstly, he beat three men before sending Chris Langley to the try-line, then did it all himself as he took a pass on half-way, said goodbye to one tackler and rounded the full-back with a dropped shoulder and some twinkle toes.

There was no looking back for the Knights this time, as they went on to win 56-24, with Elston himself going on to complete a memorable hat-trick.

He had started the game at stand-off in place of the injured Scott Rhodes but midway through the first half moved to his favoured position of hooker after his mentor at Huntington Stadium, Lee Jackson, had gone off with trapped nerves in his shoulder.

And to cut a long story short, he terrorised Gateshead's albeit sloppy defence around the play-the-balls.

He may not be the finished article but, with that kind of explosive pace, he doesn't half frighten defences and, as shown yesterday, he can turn any game with one detonation.

To be fair, the Knights, with Dan Briggs ably filling the boots of retired prop Rich Hayes and with Danny Brough winning the battle of the young scrum-halves, would probably have won anyway, but that should take nothing away from Elston's contribution.

Brough - whose tactical kicking was excellent throughout in addition to eight conversions - had already missed a penalty before York opened their account on four minutes as Ball strolled through all too easily.

It wasn't long before Brough's chip to the corner saw debutant Aaron Wood flick the ball to Alex Godfrey, who caught and put down in one movement, and at 12-0 after eight minutes, it looked like the Knights would run up a cricket score.

However, Gateshead got their act together and for the next 20 minutes put the visitors under the cosh.

Indeed, while they can look foolhardy when their high-risk ball-play doesn't come off, they can look like the Harlem Globetrotters when it does, and they had already gone close - York needing Scott Walker to tackle Robin Peers into touch - before they did cross.

Nathan Graham laboured while fielding a kick and got caught in-goal, York were then penalised for holding down, and Gateshead were rewarded for running the penalty as Graham Stephenson crossed.

It looked worse for York when Jackson went off with his arm in a sling and in Gateshead's next attack Peers got over in the corner.

Thunder were then denied the lead when Godfrey dealt well with a high kick, but they drew level through a Paul Thorman penalty and, at 12-12, the Knights needed to go up a gear or two.

Elston, however, ignored the gear stick and instead turned on the turbo. Those two quick tries that he instigated were followed by a third in the space of four minutes when Graham dummied into a gap and 40 yards out fed Darren Callaghan, who outpaced two men and skipped over a third's desperate lunge to score.

Gateshead hit back on half-time as Neil Thorman kicked through and benefited from some ping-pong to gather and score, but after the Knights crossed twice in the opening seven minutes of the second half, it was game over.

Elston got the first, going like lightning from acting-half to take advantage of slack marking, while the second saw Briggs mark a superb first appearance of the season with a pile-driving try through three tacklers. It was fitting reward for the 24-year-old, who did his chances of a regular run the power of good.

Elston initiated the Knights' next try, again darting from hooker to give Godfrey his second score out wide.

Thunder then had player-coach Seamus McCallion sin-binned as referee Craig Halloran got fed up with the hosts' constant laying-on and, in those ten minutes, York substitute Mark Cain cleverly found Elston, who showed his heels to a desperate defender on his way to a wonderful treble.

At the other end, Paul Thorman benefited from Walker's fumble to get on the end of a massive bomb from his brother, Neil, to score a consolation try, with the latter adding his fourth goal, but the final word went to York and - perhaps fittingly on his first game back after a long lay-off - Chris Smith.

Ball had earlier missed out on a superb second try as he dropped the ball under pressure just short, while Langley and Callaghan were also denied further tries by forward passes, but Smith was not to be stopped as he gathered Briggs' brilliant off-load on one of his typical bursts to the line.

Thunder: Stephen-son, Bulman, Neighbour, Firth, Peers, P Thorman, N Thorman, Line, Fisher, Meads, Stannard, Bradley, Rutherford. Subs (all used): Doherty, A Walker, I Ball, McCallion.

Tries: Stephenson 19; Peers 23; N Thorman 40; P Thorman 77.

Conversions: P Thorman 19, 40, 77.

Penalties: None

Drop goals: None.

Sin-binned: McCallion 61

Sent off: None.

Knights: Graham 7, S Walker 7, Langley 7, Wood 7, Godfrey 7, Elston 9, Brough 8, Briggs 8, Jackson 7, Sozi 7, Callaghan 7, Friend 7, Ball 7. Subs (all used): C Smith 7, Cain 7, Ramsden 7, J Smith 7.

Tries: Ball 4; God-frey 8, 59; Langley 34; Elston 36, 44, 65; Callaghan 38; Briggs 47; C Smith 80.

Conversions: Brough 4, 8, 34, 36, 44, 47, 65, 80.

Penalties: None.

Drop goals: None.

Sin-binned: None.

Sent off: None.

Man of the match:

Jim Elston - ran amok through Gateshead's defence, and not just when scoring his hat-trick.

HT: 18-28

Ref: Craig Halloran (Dewsbury)

Rating: All right, though it somehow seems wrong not to criticise.

Penalty Count: 7-9

Game breaker: Jim Elston's brilliance towards end of first half to put York back in charge.

Attendance: 366

Weather watch: dry, still, crisp.

Match rating: try-fest as expected.

Updated: 10:11 Monday, February 16, 2004