York Acorn moved up to fifth place in the National Conference League second division with an excellent 17-10 victory at Keighley Albion.

The result made it three wins from five games for the Blue and Golds who are now just three points behind leaders Crosfields with a game in hand.

A try by centre Stephen Irving and drop goal by Danny Liddell gave Acorn a 5-0 lead. Keighley's Paul Fryers and Liddell then exchanged penalties to make it 7-2 at half-time.

Although Keighley hit back with a try by winger Dave Sanderson early in the second half, Acorn put together a fine flowing move 20 minutes from time which saw Gareth Lloyd, Andy Lee and Lee Frank create an overlap for full-back John Hough to score.

Albion got back into contention when Rob Bailey and Hough collided while trying to take a high kick and Fryer picked up the loose ball to score.

The missed conversion left Acorn hanging onto an 11-10 lead before man of the match Liddell side stepped his way past three tacklers and raced 60 yards to score a fien solo try which he also converted.

In a gutsy team effort there were also good performances from Hough, Frank Soulsby and Irving.

New Earswick All Blacks are hot on Acorn's heels after a magnificent 20-10 victory over Milford Marlins at White Rose Avenue.

A Dave Carling penalty opened the scoring for New Earswick before Milford hit back with a try by scrum-half Martin Kelly who also added the conversion.

After Carling had narrowed the gap with another penalty, Milford went in for their second try through Matt Kennedy.

Milford then had two players sin-binned for dissent and New Earswick capitalised a minute frm half-time, Carling breaking from his own line before feeding winger Andy Innes who sprinted under the posts. Carling's conversion levelled the scores at 10-10 at half-time.

The second half belonged to the All Blacks and man of the match Lee McTigue clinched the victory with a brace of tries, the first converted by Carling.

Other outstanding performances came from Jamie Rhodes, Mick Harrison and Lee Paterson.

Heworth's good run of results ended in a 12-4 defeat at home to Siddal.

Stuart Watson opened the scoring for Heworth with a penalty before Siddal took the lead when centre Damieon Pickles darted in at the corner and David Holmes converted from the touchline.

The rest of the half was dominated by defences, prop Jason Gatus and stand-off Mark Green prominant for Heworth.

Heworth had a try by Kevin Gott ruled out for an infringement then Siddal extended their lead on 45 minutes when substitute Carl Gregg went over for an uncoverted try after a Gott fumble.

An excellent second penalty for Watson gave Heworth some hope but they were unable to breach Siddal's solid defence and the Halifax side wrapped things up when Holmes converted a 68th minute penalty.

North Yorkshire's two remaining representatives in the Yorkshire Cup were forced to concede their second round matches.

Selby handed a bye to Calder Valley while New Earswick 'A' were unable to field a side against Thornhill because of injuries to the first team.

A report of York Groves' 29-14 defeat of Yorkshire League division five leaders Earlsheaton will appear in tomorrow's Evening Press.

National Conference League

Premier Div: Ideal Isberg 14, Castleford Lock Lane 12; Redhill 16, Oulton 14; Saddleworth 20, Walney Central 5; Skirlaugh 16, Leigh Miners Rangers 18; Thornhill 10, Oldham St Annes 18; Wigan St Pats 14, West Hull 16; Woolston Rovers 48, Dudley Hill 12.

Div 1: Askam 10, Wigan St Judes 14; East Leeds 48, Millom 12; Featherstone Lions 14, Eccles 18; Waterhead 18, Shaw Cross 27; Leigh East 50, Eastmoor 34; Heworth 4, Siddal 12; West Bowling 12, Rochdale Mayfield 16.

Div 2: Cottingham Tigers 21, Castleford Panthers 16; Dewsbury Moor 8, Hull Dockers; Keighley Albion 10, York Acorn 17; New Earswick All Blacks 20, Milford Marlins 10; Normanton 14, Crosfields 18; Hillsborough Hawks 28, Blackbrook 14; Thatto Heath 46, London Skolars 10.

Premier Division

P W D L F A Pts

Woolston Rovers 6 5 0 1 147 85 10

Oldham St Annes 5 4 0 1 104 71 8

West Hull 5 4 0 1 86 64 8

Redhill 6 4 0 2 131 120 8

Ideal Isberg 6 3 1 2 110 106 7

Saddleworth R 5 3 0 2 108 93 6

Oulton Raiders 6 3 0 3 108 100 6

Leigh Mr 6 3 0 3 101 110 6

Thornhill 6 2 1 3 96 92 5

Cas' Lock Lane 5 2 0 3 87 63 4

Skirlaugh 6 2 0 4 76 95 4

Wigan St Patricks 6 1 1 4 138 100 3

Walney Central 6 1 1 4 81 125 3

Dudley Hill 6 1 0 5 69 218 2

Division One

Wigan St Judes 6 6 0 0 151 80 12

Eccles 6 5 0 1 150 73 10

Shaw Cross Sharks 6 5 0 1 157 105 10

Leigh East 6 5 0 1 190 152 10

Siddal 6 4 0 2 116 98 8

Featherstone Lions 6 3 0 3 163 112 6

West Bowling 6 3 0 3 103 118 6

Heworth 6 3 0 3 81 108 6

Rochdale Mayfield 5 2 0 3 104 90 4

Eastmoor 6 2 0 4 134 170 4

East Leeds 5 1 0 4 96 103 2

Waterhead 6 1 0 5 124 156 2

Millom 6 1 0 5 80 164 2

Askam 6 0 0 6 63 183 0

Division Two

Crosfields 6 5 1 0 168 90 11

Thatto Heath Crus' 5 5 0 0 220 80 10

Hull Dockers 6 4 0 2 121 96 8

Blackbrook 6 4 0 2 132 110 8

York Acorn 5 3 0 2 91 59 6

Milford Marlins 6 3 0 3 109 104 6

Cottingham Tigers 6 3 0 3 103 120 6

New Earswick AB 6 3 0 3 86 160 6

Hillsborough Hawks 6 2 1 3 102 132 5

Normanton Knights 5 2 0 3 93 102 4

Keighley Albion 6 2 0 4 82 113 4

Dewsbury Moor 6 2 0 4 87 134 4

London Skolars 5 1 0 4 88 120 2

Cas Panthers 6 0 0 6 66 128 0