York Groves failed to complete a league double over Halifax Irish A' in Pennine division five as they lost 28-20 despite a Neil Gulliver hat-trick.

Shoddy defending saw Groves trail 12-0 early on, but Paul Fowler broke and found Gulliver in support. Liam Withers then went over following a neat chip from Joe Burns.

At 12-8 down, Groves started the second half just as badly as the first, allowing Irish in twice again and seeing Matt Withers sent off.

They countered through Gulliver twice with Matt Corr going over in between, but the game was taken away from them with ten minutes left when Irish scored.