A four try bonus point win for Bradford and Bingley got the home side’s season off to the best possible start. Before the game there was talk of the visiting side, Ripon, being one of the fancied teams in Yorkshire Division 2 this term as they had apparently recruited well and employed a new player coach to build on a squad that finished third in the table last time out.

Even though the Bees finished ninth in the table last season, the Wagon Lane side always thought they had a pack to match any in the league and just needed one or two key additions to start to build a winning run in this division. Despite dominating some sides up front last term, the Bees fell short in turning that pressure into points; that deficiency seems to have been addressed for this season as the Bees thoroughly deserved their margin of victory.

The return of club skipper, Luke Spauls, after a season long injury kept him sidelined last year, certainly added a new level of direct running up the middle of the field, which gave the Bees the upper hand in the forward battle around the rucks ands mauls. Several other forwards joined in with the fun up front with Alex Leadbeater, Corey Spencer and Rob Woodhead all getting over the gain line when required. However, it was not all about bumping and barging through the pack, as man of the match, scrum half Sammy Wild, darted here and there and got the back line moving to some effect. Wild’s half back pairing with Tom Dyson added a real confidence to the Bees movement out wide and with Jim Nicholas featuring as a menacing presence at inside centre, the home side were able to vary their game and keep the Ripon defence guessing as to where the next attack was coming from.

The Bees maintained some excellent field position throughout the eighty minutes and much of that was down to the superb territorial kicking of Dom Walker who sprayed some excellent long kicks deep into the corners and matched his accuracy out of hand with some superb kicks at goal off the tee.

The home side opened the scoring on 14 minutes when Dyson was the last man with the ball as concerted pressure pushed Ripon back towards their line. Walker landed the conversion for a seven point lead.

The lead was increased with a Walker penalty on 27 minutes, but with the sides turning round at half time and Ripon playing with the slope in the second half, perhaps a ten point advantage might not be enough to keep the visitors at bay. Five minutes into the second half, perhaps we had an answer as a rare loose pass in the Bees backline was hauled in by Ripon centre, Allan Hudson who galloped clear to score from long range. With the conversion slotted by Morgan Clark it was 10 points to seven and there were signs that Ripon were getting back into the game.

However, within five minutes, Bees nerves were eased as Olly Leadbeater took advantage of some poor defending at a line out to plough over out wide on the left. Walker added the extras with a booming conversion.

The Bees were now beginning to build pressure up the middle of the field and after Spauls had spun away from a maul and charged thorough a couple of tackles, the Bees suddenly had the Ripon line in sight and when Nicholas picked up the ball a couple metres out, there could only be one result as the big man rolled over the line.

Ripon added a penalty through Clark and with the score at 25 points to 10 with around fifteen minutes to play it seemed as though the Bees had the game wrapped up as Ripon seemed unlikely to manage the three scores they needed to snatch the win. The Bees secured the fourth try and the bonus point in the 68th minute through David Exley. Walker again banged over the conversion and at 32 points to ten, perhaps the Bees relaxed some what in the closing stages. The final points came through a late Ripon try, with Hudson again the scorer.