Meltham All Blacks have taken their magnificent defensive form into the New Year.
After making an impressive habit of ‘nilling’ their Pennine League Division VI West opponents at the end of 2014, they opened up 2015 by securing a 42-0 home triumph over Queensbury A in their first fixture in 2015.
It means they have now conceded just 56 points in their opening 10 fixtures – which is obviously less than one converted try per game – to move to within two League points of leaders Victoria Rangers A.
And their form against Queensbury suggests they could go on to be crowned champions.
Meltham were almost immediately into their stride and it wasn’t long before Dave Farrell scored by the posts for brother Andy to add the conversion.
The tries then came at regular intervals, with Ben Moorhouse breaking the line and drawing the full-back to put Matty Carter under the posts for try No2.
Teo Zaffino then kicked a loose Queensbury ball 40 yards and picked up to fall over the line before the ball went through several pairs of hands for Cameron Field to race from halfway like a young gazelle to make it 24-0 at the break.
It didn’t take long for the hosts to extend their lead at the start of the second half as Paul Carmody stormed under the posts and then another break from Moorhouse sent David Roebuck away to touch down.
And although the pitch began to cut up to knee deep in places, it failed to prevent the light-footed Gareth Allen skipping his way over from 15 yards to complete the scoring.
Andy Farrell made no mistake with the conversion to make it a magnificent seven out of seven to crown a victory in which the Little Badger man-of-the-match was Roebuck.
It was also a good start to 2015 for Newsome Panthers, who secured their third Championship I Division victory of the campaign with a very impressive 40-10 home triumph over Allerton Bywater.
But Emley Moor suffered a New Year hangover as they crashed to a 56-2 defeat at unbeaten Fourth Division leaders Crofton Cougars.
