Heworth ARLC shocked promotion-seeking Crosfields into action and ended up on the wrong end of a 40-10 scoreline.

The York side - more than half of whom were teenagers - scored the first try of the match when winger Mike Welsh shot over from a Dan Briggs pass, but the third-placed team in National Conference division two levelled five minutes later and, after taking the lead on 12 minutes, never looked back.

Rob Ditchfield got their equalising try and Richard Hough put them ahead, with second-row Dave Boden's try making it 16-4 at half-time, Jimmy Williams having added two conversions.

Heworth worked hard, with loose-forward Briggs in particular to the fore, but any hopes of a surprise comeback were pretty much over two minutes after the restart when home loose-forward Danny Inman crossed.

Crosfields scored four more tries in the half, by Dave Pennington, Terry Reid, Williams, who added two more goals, and scrum-half Greg Pickett.

But Heworth kept going till the end and grabbed a consolation try late on through full-back Sam Johnson, Briggs adding the extras.

Heworth spokesman Ken Sykes said: "It was always going to be a hard day for us. They're quite an experienced team and we had a very young side out with six under-18s in.

"We battled well and in a way we didn't do too bad. We don't want to be conceding 40 points but it was not entirely discouraging."

Updated: 11:07 Monday, January 30, 2006