Goole ran riot in the first half to swamp York in North East Two on a drenched Westfield pitch.

Remarkably it finished 45-7 after Goole had scored all their points in the first half.

The pitch became increasingly heavy as the game proceeded and Goole were well suited to the conditions with a tall, heavy pack and equally robust outsides.

The home side were on the point of totally annihilating York when the interval arrived but, thereafter, York were the better, if not so dominant team.

Goole were soon on the attack and the ball was swept out to the right for full-back, Huw Davies, to overlap and score an unconverted try in the corner. Within two minutes Goole extended their lead when centre Alan Neal shot over for a scrum close to the York line. James Ruhmann converted.

York could not escape their own half and they strayed offside to enable Goole to try a clever set-piece tap penalty to send huge No 8 Phil Jackson in for a try which Ruhmann converted.

At a deficit of 19 points without reply, York's fortunes appeared at a low ebb but, within two minutes, they plummeted several notches lower as flanker Nick Smart was called home because his wife had been rushed to hospital.

Then, scrum-half Nigel Durham was carried off with a torn calf muscle. Sean Bass took over at scrum-half with Ed Bennison coming on in the centre. Former, now retired, first teamer Nick Hare replaced Smart.

As York re-grouped, Goole scored the try of the match when Ruhmann worked the right hand blindside and fed inside to Jackson who sent winger Rob Driffil away to return the complement by passing inside to Jackson who scored for Ruhmann to convert.

In the last 10 minutes of the half, Goole's fluid skills added three more tries, two of which Ruhmann converted. First, another clever set-piece penalty put Jackson over. Then, flanker Darren Moore romped over before Ruhmann kicked ahead and then hacked his way to the line.

It is difficult to ascribe York's second half revival to the fact that they were now playing against the wind. Certainly, Goole began to make handling and kicking errors which handed possession to York.

After Goole enjoyed an early period of supremacy, York were increasingly in control. After 10 minutes they registered a try when their forwards started driving forward and the ball was released to centre Andy Hurst who jinked his way over from 10 yards out for Dirk Mulder to convert.

York's injury woes were not complete as 10 minutes later Mulder went off with a damaged ankle. As Tom Heppleston had replaced fullback Nick Boothroyd at the interval York were now down to 14 men for the last 20 minutes.

Undaunted they fought back and threatened their opponents line on several occasions through determined combined forward pressure with Bass supporting strongly.

So well did the mud-splattered York pack play, it would be difficult to single out any individual.

When former St Peter's schoolboy, James Dougherty, led a lone break-out he was flattened by an excellent Heppleston tackle.

York ended clearly on top. It was enough to hearten them and their supporters and earn praise from their opponents.

But, it could not erase the embarrassment of their first half demolition by a well-drilled Goole team.

Updated: 13:36 Monday, February 12, 2001