A serious injury to Dale Philips took the gloss of a fine Acorn victory over Guildford Construction in a thrilling Arthur Rhodes Haulage Interworks final at Clifton Park.

An Acorn player breaks through the Guildford defence in yesterday's Arthur Rhodes Haulage Interworks final at Clifton Park

With Acorn just minutes away from lifting the trophy, their centre Philips hurt an ankle in a tackle.

The game was held up for nearly 10 minutes as an ambulance arrived at pitch side to take him away to hospital where he was kept overnight.

The delay handed Guildford their second wind and they almost stole the game in the dying seconds.

But Acorn hung on with some stubborn defending to run out 24-22 winners.

It was the second successive year the final had been halted for a major injury.

McKechnie Plastics centre Nick Massam broke his left ankle in their defeat by South Bank last year.

That injury resulted in a 20-minute stoppage.

It was also the second successive Interworks victory for four of Acorn's side - Billy Blackburn, Mick Lumby, Steve Cross and

Lee Franks - who were all in that victorious South Bank team.Franks was the star of the show last year but this time it was scrum half Dean Kilbride who provided the inspiration with some exciting attacking play to lift the RW Harrison Memorial Trophy as man of the match.

A Garry Atkins inspired Guildford, who often looked the more threatening in attack, flattered to deceive with too many handling and defensive errors proving costly.

It was Guildford who drew first blood when lively scrum half Adie Robinson threw a dummy and stepped inside the Acorn defence.

He scampered under the posts for a try which Dave Carling converted.

Acorn were soon back on level terms thanks to some slack defence.

Semi-final hero full back Paul Smith chipped through and followed up unopposed to dive on the ball over the try line and leave himself an easy conversion.

As the initiative swung one way then the other, it was Guildford who restored their advantage.

New Earswick All Blacks' full back Carling providing the pass for centre Dave Meek to touch down.

Carling again added the extras.

But a 10-minute spell at the end of the half swung the game in Acorn's favour, two mistakes by Guildford giving away two soft tries.

First Nick Ward failed to gather Kilbride's kick and as the ball slid away from his grasp, second row Steve Cross kicked ahead and got his fingertips to the ball just before it went dead.

Then the Guildford defence stood still allowing Billy Blackburn acres of space to drive forward and crash over from close range.

Smith's goal edged Acorn 16-12 ahead at the interval and though Guildford still looked to have enough in reserve, their hopes were dented when Dennis Wilson was given his marching orders for a high tackle on Danny Crampton.

And when Kilbride darted in for an opportunist try which Smith goaled Guildford's chance was fading.

Atkins gave them some hope with a solo effort but Acorn took what proved to be an unassailable eight point lead when Philips dived over from acting half after a good break by Kilbride.

That was to be Philips' last action before he was carted away to hospital.

Carling then managed to pull one try back for Guildford deep into injury time when he followed up his own chip.

But it was too late to wrest the trophy from Acorn's grasp.

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