Keighley Academy 10-3 Baildon 2nds

With all Keighley’s pitches suffering from recent heavy rainfall, the academy were forced to play on St John's pitch, which is commonly known as the banana pitch ( for good reason).
On an unseasonably mild afternoon bragging rights were at stake with the home team aiming to do the double over the team from Jenny Lane.
Early pressure from the away team led to a Keighley infringement, which gave Baildon the chance to open the scoring after only 3 minutes. A successful penalty gave the away team an early 0-3 lead.
Both teams were unlucky not to add to the scores, especially Keighley after a good break from Nathan Berry which was hacked on by Jordan Powell, but they were caught just short. On 16 minutes A Jordan Powell penalty for Keighley levelled the scores at 3 - 3.
Both teams battled against the condition of the pitch, as the game turned into a bit of an arm wrestle and neither team were able to score again before the interval.
The second half continued in the same manner until the deadlock was broken on 53 minutes with a well taken try by Jordan Powell who added the extras with a superb conversion to take his personal tally to 10 points.
From then Keighley took the game to Baildon with Johnny Harrison orchestrating things from half back. Phillips, Curr and Welch the pick of the pack and Berry and Anders Hagelin (having an impressive debut) always dangerous in open play.
As the half moved on, the game descended into more of a scrummaging training session with the game stopping, starting, stopping, starting etc, certainly not pretty to watch and probably not enjoyable for either pack!! As the game went into its final quarter tempers started to fray on both sides with the referee doing well to stop it spiralling out of control. In the final minutes of the game Baildon applied all the pressure, but it was Keighley’s dogged defence that kept the visitors out and sealed a very impressive 10-3 win.