Rugby League: Moldgreen’s narrow defeat

Sep 24 2008 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MOLDGREEN opened their Pennine League First Division campaign with a 30-22 home defeat to Keighley Town.

In what proved to be a good, competitive encounter, the home side held a narrow 18-16 lead at the break.

First to strike for Moldgreen was Joe Greenside, who was on hand to capitalise on some good work from Lee King and Dean Bradshaw.

Then, on Moldgreen’s next attack, a Roger Simpson kick to the corner and good chase from the hard-tackling Kristian Burns forced a Keighley error and Nick Bellafonte was unlucky not to extend the lead.

The visitors made the most of the let-off by levelling the scores before a good drive from Tom Nelmes gave Sean James the opening to score.

A series of errors then enabled the visitors to take the lead.

But just before the break, Moldgreen got right back into the contest as Nick Swift opened his account on the back of good work from the Simpson brothers, Greenside and Gillan Warrington.

A Darren Simpson try kept Moldgreen’s noses in front early in the second half.

But in the closing stages, the home side began to run out of steam, not helped by injuries to Mick Shaw, King and Simpson, and Town took full advantage to seal the contest.

There was also a defeat in the first game of their season for Meltham All Blacks in Division V as they lost 40-24 at Halifax Irish.

But a lot of positives were taken from the game, despite the scoreline.

There were two tries from man-of-the-match Shane Dawson and one each for Ryan White and Ian Stoggs, with conversions from Rob Lewis (3) and Andrew Stevenson.

However, main Pennine League highlights of the day were definitely the big 44-16 home victory for Newsome Panthers over Calder Valley in Division II and Lindley Swifts’ 40-24 Third Division triumph at Odsal Sedbergh.