Clock Face Miners earned their first points of the season and they defeated Beverley ARLFC 44-28 in the National Conference League.
Head coach Scott Taylor was disappointed with this latest defeat which sees the blue and golds still without a win on the road.
However, the home Clock Face were good value for their putting out out a strong pack and playing the game at a fast pace. Going into the game bottom of the table and with 3 defeats from 3 starts they were in no mood for compromise.
Taylor was forced to reshuffle his side ahead of the game. With Billy Riby injured and Alex Starling unavailable he had to make changes. This saw Taylor draft Lewis Straw into the half-backs, switch Lewis Poskitt to full back. While Will Wallis was moved into the second row.
Clock Face Miners were very quickly out of the traps racing to a 20-0 lead inside 20 minutes. Two tries from Carl Hunt, one from Luke Leyden, all converted by Ian Webster. They also added a penalty goal which left Beverley chasing the game.
A succession of penalties did then give Beverley the field position for Jack Howdle to offload and send Tom Moor over. Soon after Jordan Precious sent Jack Howdle over. Josh Poskitt and Lewis Straw converted to reduce the arrears to 12-20.
Beverley failed to maintain the momentum and after a bomb was fumbled and Beverley were caught offside, the next set saw Sean Costello extend the home side’s advantage.
Beverley’s restart kick then went out on the full leading to more pressure. Luke Leyden and Joe Eccleston then added further scores before the break.
Beverley And Clock Face Have Men Sent To Sin Bin
Five minutes into the second half Beverley looked to be hitting back. A Lewis Straw bomb was fumbled, Ben Naylor re-gathered. This sent Lewis Poskitt away only for him to be pulled back for a forward pass. After 52 minutes Luke Forber extended the home side’s lead to 38-12 with a try.
Beverley struggled to get many attacking sets close to the home side’s line. When they did they very often coughed up possession early in the tackle count. The match boiled over midway through the second half as a skirmish erupted. Ash Shaw was dismissed for Beverley and a Clock Face player sent to the sin-bin. Going down to 12 men did seem to spark Beverley to life.
On 72 minutes, Ben Naylor sent Lewis Miller away to score in the corner. Very shortly after, Naylor again sent Miller away. This time the young winger did exceptionally well to sidestep a number of chasing cover defenders to score behind the posts.
Straw this time converted but hopes of a miraculous comeback were dashed as the ball was lost from the re-start kick. The resulting attacking set then saw Josh Conber go over for a converted try to stretch the hosts lead.
Beverley did have the last word. Lewis Miller raced 90 meters for an interception try. A hat-trick inside 8 minutes for Miller alongside a man of the match performance from Jack Howdle, were bright spots for Beverley. Otherwise, this was a disappointing afternoon.
