Malton and Norton romped to a 56-8 victory over Pocklington to keep their Yorkshire Two promotion hopes on track.

But they had a shock as lowly Pock held an 8-7 interval lead at The Gannock.

Well fired up and with several points to prove Pock attacked the Malton pack from the beginning and were given just reward when full-back Mark Taylor converted a penalty.

Malton did look dangerous when they were able to get the ball to their threequarters but the Pocklington pack were not in benevolent mood and decent home ball was in short supply.

However, Maltton did retaliate with a Tim Chapman try, converted by Ian Cooke, to briefly take the lead.

Pocklington, though were still in first gear and dominating the forward exchanges. Good line kicking, particularly from Taylor, kept Malton on the back foot for long periods and when a ruck was set up close to the Malt line scrum-half John Frank left the Malton back row leaden-footed to score in the corner.

Indeed, Pock could well have added to their total had it not been for some last-ditch defensive work by Malton.

A half-time wake-up call did the trick for Malton but nobody present could have foreseen the final outcome.

Much quicker to the breakdown, Malton laid siege on the Pock defence.

The first of eight tries resulted from a maul close to the line and a five-metre charge from prop forward Richard Ellis.

Despite the ten minute loss of flanker Andy Mitchell, Malton went further ahead from a James McKay effort which knocked the stuffing out of a weary Pock side.

From that point on Malton ran in tries at will, most from broken play, the pick of which was a solo effort from full-back Jason Simpson who gathered in his own half and, using his supporting colleagues as foils, ghosted through the defence to touch down and further demoralise the visitors.

Further tries came from centre Will Barber, who was excellent throughout, David Webster, McKay, Chris Creber and Liam Cowton. Ian Cooke converted four tries and one penalty in total.

Malton consolidated second place in Yorkshire 2 with the victory but must still win at Beverley in the final game of the season on April 12 to secure a promotion place.

Updated: 09:50 Monday, March 31, 2003