Pock wiped out in second half

In a dramatic change of fate, Pocklington matched their high-flying visitors every step of the way in an even, scoreless first half, but were then swamped in the second period as West Park finished easy winners.

Pocklington's young side, containing six teenagers, stood up well in the first half, and even had the better of the chances. West Park arrived in joint second place in the table while Pocklington are camped at the bottom, but there was little difference between the sides as Pocklington took the game to their opponents.

They should have scored two or three tries after some excellent approach play, but just missed out. Full-back Mark Taylor, who passed a late fitness test to play, and quick silver scrum-half John Frank both made clean 50-yard breaks, but the vital pass went to ground on the first occasion and they were pulled back for a harsh forward pass ruling on the second.

Then Taylor and 18-year old debutant Toby Shann combined on the right flank only to see Frank held on the line as he tried to stretch over.

Pocklington still went into the interval in optimistic mood with the score locked at 0-0, but their hopes plummeted within 10 minutes of the restart as they made three errors that were ruthlessly punished by West Park, who turned all three into tries in quick succession.

After that West Park were dominant and rubbed it in with a series of scores which a tiring Pocklington side could do little about.

Tries came at regular intervals in the second period and getting on the scoresheet for the visitors were full-back Richard Monkhouse, who also converted six of his side's eight tries, centre Matt Stevens, No 8 Mark Weston, stand-off Matt Ingram, scrum-half Glen Kilvington, winger Jason Holmes and back row Paul Minns.

The result leaves Pock three points adrift at the bottom while Bramhope and Malton are battling it out for second place behind Keighley.

Updated: 09:49 Monday, March 17, 2003