YORK Acorn will be proud as punch to be sitting pretty in fourth place in division two of the National Conference after six matches.

They recorded their fourth victory of the season with a 28-14 success over Cottingham Tigers and they had plenty of reasons to be glad they gambled on throwing 18-year-old Nick Caldwell into the fray for his Conference debut.

However, it was the Tigers who showed their teeth first with Dean O'Loughlin thumping over a penalty.

The tide turned when a Cottingham slip was punished by Acorn stand-off Danny Liddell who pounced to score a try and from that point on Acorn were always looking confident.

Loose forward Mike Embleton stretched their lead with a well taken try, but O'Loughlin ensured Tigers trailed by only four points at the interval as he landed a second penalty.

They drew level early in the second period when winger Paul Campbell crossed the line, but Acorn were lifted when Caldwell cut through for a fine try and Frank Lee added the goal.

They wrapped up the points when Liddell produced a superb solo run to score from 40 metres out and then added the goal for good measure.

Acorn went on to cruise home with further tries from Tim Wilcock and Alan Willetts, before O'Loughlin gained some consolation for the Tigers with a late try and goal.

New Earswick were left without a game as their match at Crosfields was postponed.

In the first division, Heworth were over-powered in their match at Eccles going down 26-4.

It was not until the second half that the Manchester side, who went back to the top of the table courtesy of their win, managed to cut loose as Heworth tackled tenaciously.

In fact the York side went ahead when Jason Gatus kicked a penalty and then he regained the lead for them with a second dose after Eccles had pulled level with a Kris Smith penalty goal.

However, just before half-time a John McAtee try and Smith goal gave Eccles the lead and they never looked back.

The second half saw tries for Neil McPherson, John Hurst and Paul Rafferty as Eccles took control and Heworth's cause was not helped as Dean Pickup and Gavin Grant ended up in the sin-bin.