Acomb'S bid to reach the Yorkshire Hockey Cup final ended when they were beaten 5-1 by Rotherham.

The South Yorkshire side play three divisions higher than Acomb and virtually stitched up the semi-final with two goals from short corners in the opening five minutes.

Gradually Acomb started to pass the ball around more and should have pulled a goal back through Paul Wright but his effort was saved. Jamie Robinson then had the next effort but his shot went wide.

With minutes to go in the half Acomb conceded a third although in the second half they worked hard and made it more difficult for Rotherham.

Strong defence from Dave Bell and the rest of the team made it hard for Rotherham to get through and Acomb pulled a goal back from Nick Linfoot and they could have had another one except for a diving save from a Stuart Baxter shot.

Rotherham broke late in the half and scored a further two goals as Acomb, who had knocked out two higher-ranked sides on their way to the last four, went down fighting.

The previous day Acomb collected a useful 3-1 win over Airedale in the first division of the Yorkshire League.

In what is always a tight match between the two teams Airedale started the better as Stuart Baxter and Mike Brown were both kept busy in defence.

Acomb gradually started to find their form and took the lead from a well worked short corner from Baxter to go in 1-0 up at half-time.

Airedale equalised in the second half but Acomb regained lead through Mathew Dickenson whose low shot went in at the far post.

Acomb sealed victory from a short corner. After the original shot from Dickenson was saved the rebound found Jamie Robinson who slotted home.

Tadcaster II had to come from behind to beat Thirsk II 2-1 in their Yorkshire league division eight encounter.

Man-of-the-match Rob Hill flicked in the equaliser from Hebden's pass and the Thirsk 'keeper kept his side in the game with a string of fine saves.

His resistance was finally broken when Dyl Beardmore's long pass found Hill whose cross-field pass was knocked in by the outstretched stick of winger Paul Oxtoby.

Updated: 11:54 Tuesday, November 27, 2001