York Groves shot to the top of Yorkshire League division five with a fine 20-14 home win against North Yorkshire rivals Scarborough Sharks.

The Terriers opened the scoring with second rower Graham Bird touching down after bursting through several Scarborough defenders.

After continuous pressure, they increased their lead when scrum-half John Thompson latched onto the ball and weaved his way through the defence to score an excellent solo effort which he also converted.

A lapse in concentration and poor defence allowed the visitors to pull back a converted try just before the break to make the half-time score 10-6 to Groves.

Straight after the interval, Groves showed their dominance when captain Paul Scott went over from the scrum.

They continued to play some fine rugby and anything Scarborough had to offer was snuffed out by the solid home defence.

From deep in the Groves half, joint man of the match Andy Starkey laid the ball off for paceman Adie Beales to race 50 yards and touch down for an excellent try, converted by scrum-half John Thompson.

Complacency allowed Scarborough to pull back with two unconverted tries late in the game. However, Groves held on to earn a well deserved win.

Starkey shared the man of the match honours with Danny Battle and there were also fine performances from Gareth Wiseman, Scott and Chris Smith.

Selby Warriors recorded their first win in Yorkshire League division two as they beat Doncaster Toll Bar 27-10.

It was a fine start for new coach Paul Helstrip as he took charge of his first league game following a 34-14 win over Queenswood in the cup last week.

Warriors trailed 10-8 at the break, Colin Barker and Wayne Fennell scoring the Selby tries.

In the second half Selby took command as Andy Rowls crossed twice and man of the match Fennell grabbed his second. Fennell also added three goals and Mark Hanson a drop goal.

Sean Barker, Wayne Knight and Hanson also played well in a good team performance.

It was not such a good day for York's three National Conference League clubs.

Two tries in a five minute spell in the second half ended Heworth's hopes of victory at Eastmoor Dragons in division one.

They were just 10-6 behind until the 66th minute but converted tries from hooker Craig Whiteley and a second for full-back Jamie Barraclough wrapped up the points for the Wakefield side.

Eastmoor took the lead after 12 minutes when Barraclough went over for his first after a 40/20 kick.

Heworth levelled when under-18s player Matt Corr took Steve Barnard's pass to score from close range. They edged in front before the interval with a Carl Potter penalty.

Ten minutes into the second half Eastmoor went back in front when loose forward Gary Wright made the most of some slack tackling to score a try which man of the match Kevin Brown converted.

Then came Eastmoor's two-try burst before Steve Lidbury added to their try tally ten minutes from time. Gavin Grant went in for a consolation effort for Heworth at the death.

Full-back Kevin Gott was the pick of the Heworth side with good displays also from centre John Coulson and forward Mark Briggs.

It was another case of what might have been for New Earswick All Blacks who were narrowly beaten 20-14 at Keighley Albion in the second division.

Carl Pallister missed a third minute penalty for the All Blacks but they did take the lead four minutes later when good work by Lee Paterson and Jez Petch saw Gary Isles cross in the corner.

Keighley hit back with a try from Neil Jordan and Mark Adams converted brilliantly from the touchline.

All Blacks levelled the scores with a Pallister penalty but Albion regained the advantage when winger Tony Fretwell touched down in the corner.

Another Pallister penalty looked like leaving New Earswick just two points down at the break. But in injury time they lost the ball in the tackle and Albion capitalised to score through Adams who converted his own try.

Defences were on top in atrocious conditions in the second half before Keighley extended their lead five minutes from time with a second try from Fretwell.

With two minutes remaining Pallister dummied his way over and added the conversion to set up a grandstand finish but Keighley hung on.

Rich Harrison was the All Blacks' man of the match, closely followed by Trevor Sadler and Lee Paterson.

York Acorn performed well despite losing 36-8 at home to second division leaders Thatto Heath.

All Acorn's points came in the first half through a Steve Irving try, after a good break by Nick Caldwell, and two John Hough goals.

The St Helens side led 18-8 at the break but ran away with it late in the game.

Acorn battled well but were unable to prevent another defeat which sees them slip further down the table after a promising start to the season.

Thatto Heath have another visit to York next week when they face All Blacks in the Challenge Cup.