An improving Selby Warriors Amateur Rugby League Club Under-11s put in their best first half performance of the season against a very strong experienced Middleton outfit to take a 12-10 lead into the break.

But it was not enough as they eventually lost 22-12.

Captain Luke Liddle won the toss and immediately Selby went for the opposition. They made the first inroad when hooker Danny Bate crossed for his seventh try of the season. Adam Chappell added the conversion.

Inexperience gifted Middleton their first try when a speculative kick that should have been kicked out of play was fumbled over the line by two colliding Selby defenders.

But the visitors countered strongly. Carl Wilkinson ran on to a dummy pass from Bate that enabled Liddle to take an inch-perfect pass at speed and carry over several frantic defenders to score his seventh try of the season. The kick was converted by Connor Smith.

But right on half-time a lapse in concentration opened the way for a Middleton try.

As the weather deteriorated, Middleton slowly began to turn the screw in the second half on a tired Warriors team that had given everything. Desperate tackling by Ben Crosby, Jack Underwood and Michael Carse was not enough to keep out Middleton who scored two very late tries to narrowly take the match. Selby have been given a bye this weekend, but training is as usual tonight from 6pm-7pm.

New Earswick All Blacks U13s continued their rise in the Yorkshire Juniors division 2 table with a 30-0 win at Dewsbury Moor.

Playing in atrocious conditions the All Blacks controlled the game from the kick off with a hat-trick of tries from Ben Johnson, two from Kayle Stannard and one from Nick Speck.

Jonny Nendick returned to top form with some barnstorming runs and Daryl Davison continues to improve his contribution. Luke Watling produced another man of the match performance.

Acorn U12s produced a spirited display at Smawthorne, but lost 36-0.

Trailing 20-0 at half-time Acorn took the game to the hosts but were unable to trouble the scorers. The man of the match was James Mountford.

There was further away-day woe for Acorn U16s, whose outing to Castleford ended in a 34-18 defeat to Kippax.

They showed slight improvement in the second half but failed to complete a set of six and with only a handful of players playing to their full potential it was always going to be an uphill battle.

Matthew Nelson tackled well in the forwards while Timmy Elliot - joint man of the match with Matthew Sellers - excelled at scrum-half. Try-scorers were Adam Sellers, Elliot, Chris Corr and Tom Shaw. Lee Acaster kicked a conversion.

Updated: 09:07 Thursday, February 05, 2004