Bees 27-20 Pocklington

There was a feeling amongst the home support that this was a game that Hugh Gumbs' men should have put to bed well before full time, but when the visitors were awarded a penalty try with eight minutes remaining and the Bees reduced to 14 after Corey Spencer was sin binned, there were some anxious moments for the Wagon Lane faithful as the clock ticked on into the final few minutes.

The Bees were again guilty of choosing route one, straight up the middle, when there appeared to be chances begging if they had set their backs free on the wide spaces out on the wings. The middle of the Wagon Lane pitch is certainly taking a hammering in recent Bees' performances as large parts of the game are played on a twenty metre wide strip running from one set of posts to the other. Despite their shortcomings with ball in hand, the Bees had an in form kicker, in Lance Taylor whose 17 points from the tee kept the scoreboard moving when the midfield arm wrestle largely produced a stalemate. The visitors seemed to suffer a string of injuries, and despite the number of walking wounded in the Pocklington ranks, the visitors certainly held their own, particularly in the second half, after a half time score of 21-6 in favour of the home side suggested the Bees could possibly have started to pull away.

Although the Bees seemed overly keen in using the battering ram approach, both first half scores came from backs as Jack Malthouse cantered home after 6 minutes to open the scoring and Semi Maasi improved the Bees lead to 18-6 in the 31st minute. Between those two scores, the kickers from both sides had a number of successful shots at goal with Taylor landing 3 penalties and a conversion, with Pocklington's full back Christian Pollock landing two three pointers in reply.

Scrum Half, Ben Hockenhull remained busy around the rucks and mauls and kept a high tempo as the Bees bumped and barged into the Pocklington defence. Although the visitors defence looked solid enough, one Bees player who looked likely to break through via route one was Alex Keeton, making his seasonal debut. If there was a black mark against Keeton's bustling performance, it was the yellow card he received on 42 minutes. However, that set back did not immediately stall the home side as Taylor stepped up slot another penalty and improve the home advantage to 24-6.

However, as the game wore on and the Bees seemed to be making increasingly hard work of it, hooker James Thornton popped up with a score for Pocklington on 59 minutes, with Pollock's conversion pulling his side to eleven points inn arrears with 20 minutes to play. Although Taylor increased the home lead to 14 again five minutes later, the Bees were by no means home and hosed, despite having the lion's share of territory and possession for the opening three quarters of the game. With the penalty try coming on 72 minutes, Pocklington were clearly now in with a shout of at least pulling out a least a draw from the game, but the Bees did enough to finish the game in front and take the four points for a win.

By
Nick Patterson