HEATH moved up the Yorkshire I table after surviving a series of missed penalty attempts against them before coming away with an 11-10 victory from their visit to North Ribblesdale.
Having struggled early in the season, the Calderdale side – who host YMCA for the next League match on December 8 – are starting to put some good results together, although on this occasion they did have to watch the Ribblesdale kicker miss no fewer than five penalties in what effectively became a one-point game.
Early pressure from Ian Downsborough, Dave Montgomery and Oliver Cook forced Ribblesdale into conceding a penalty and Charlis Lomas gave the visitors the lead with his kick.
Ribb hit back with a try from centre Hayes, converted by Moon, but Heath regained the lead when Chris Moore was sent in by Downsborough for an unconverted try.
With just a one-point difference it was anybody’s game at half time, although Heath were playing well with both solid defending and strong running from the backs.
And they extended their slender lead in the second half, when neat inter-passing between Thackray, Downsborough, Hetherington and Clogher forced Ribb into conceding a penalty, and Lomas stroked the ball between the uprights.
But on 53 minutes, it was back to a one-point difference as Ribblesdale’s kicker sneaked in a penalty off the post, but that was his last success as Heath’s discipline disintegrated, gifting the home side five further attempts at goal, any one of which would have sealed the win.
Ribb also knocked on when a try seemed imminent, but to their credit Heath hung on to record a fine away win.
