AN entertaining tussle saw York Acorn ARL under-13s beat Wakefield-based Eastmoor 34-14.

The close first half saw Acorn cross for two unconverted tries by centre Lee Spain and full-back Matthew Gray before being pegged back by two Eastmoor tries, one converted.

After the restart Acorn produced several flowing attacks which yielded hat-tricks for Spain and Matthew Gray, and another try for centre Wardell. At the hub of the attacks were Lee Botterill, Wesley Potter and Gray, who were joint men of the match with prop Tom Speck.

Acorn's defence, with Mark Gover again inspirational, thereafter held firm.

Heworth ARL U13s put up a creditable display against top of the table Smawthorpe before losing 27-4.

The big, well-organised visitors would have run up a bigger score against many other teams but Heworth stuck to their task and refused to fold, deserving more than their single try scored late on by Gareth Watson. Steve Huller, Adam Jones, Danny Allen and Watson all shone.

York Acorn ARL U14s turned in a poor showing as they lost 22-10 to Hunslet Parkside.

Acorn never got going and were unable to trouble a Hunslet side who did little more than the basics. Only Jason Smith and the Mackley twins, Stephen and Thomas, impressed for Acorn, with Stephen in particular catching the eye by scoring all his side's points with two tries and a goal.

York Acorn ARL U12s lost 27-16 at home to Castleford Panthers, despite a fine display by Matthew Fairclough, who impressed in all aspects of the game.

He was closely followed for the man of the match award by stand-off Mark Sanderson, who ran well with ball in hand and tackled tirelessly. Acorn's tries came from Fairclough (2) and David Leeke, with Ross Varley kicking two goals.

Updated: 12:00 Wednesday, November 14, 2001