YORK won their friendly at Yarnbury 26-23 rather more comfortably than the score suggests.

With only four minutes of normal time remaining, York led 26-11 but carelessly conceded two tries in the final moments to give the home side a boost.

A cold and a strong wind blew straight down the ground and York elected to play into the wind and were soon ahead when fly-half Craig Ventress kicked a penalty as Yarnbury went offside.

Within five minutes York returned the compliment when Sean Bass conceded a penalty which home fly-half Steve Galbraith converted.

Galbraith used the wind to gain territory but York 8, Ian Davies, took the game back to Yarnbury with some strong bursts off the back of the scrum.

After 20 minutes, Yarnbury took the lead with a well-fashioned try, left winger Simon Threlfall, who found the York defence badly aligned, speeding away to score.

Galbraith could not convert but he was soon back in the game with an interception which gained the ground for him to kick a penalty when York went offside.

Mistakes abounded on both sides. York's line-out work was in particular disarray and they found it hard to achieve the continuity to pose a threat. However, they had enough for Ventress to convert two penalties to trim Yarnbury's lead to 11-9.

Stu Davies went to the centre to replace the injured Chris McDonald with Simon Thornton coming on at flanker. Despite the helpful wind it was mid-half before York got a grip on the game. Rob Kama made one of his sinuous runs before Ian Davies barged his way over from ten yards out. Ventress converted.

York began to pass more confidently and Davies surged down the middle and Ventress added a penalty. Kama again burst through and Bass strode through a mangled defence for a try which Ventress converted.

Yarnbury winger John Bramham followed up a kick and his pace was far too much for York and he raced 70 metres to score a thrilling try.

In injury-time, York were still on the Yarnbury line looking to score. Galbraith had other ideas and took a quick 22 drop as York nodded. He hacked the ball the length of the field holding off several defenders to score and add the conversion.

The outstanding feature of the day was the refereeing of Andrew Vartigan. His crisp explanations of his decisions and general good humour was a model of control.

Updated: 12:44 Monday, November 17, 2003