Silsden Park Rangers ARLFC

Stainland Stags 14 – Silsden Park Rangers 44

A depleted Silsden side reduced to only 12 players due to injuries, work commitments and holidays travelled up to Stainland and knew from the start that it was going to be an uphill battle.  Silsden player coach Tony Fella gambled on putting all the front line troops in the middle of the park, the front row consisting of himself and Chris Langdale at prop and John Williams at hooker.  The back row of Rick Greenwood Ed Billings and captain Neil Jordan completed the pack and with the return of John Gwilliam from honeymoon at scrum half, Andy Bowness reverted to stand off.

Silsden and Stainland are old rivals and encounters are always spicy affairs; both teams were up for this and it turned out to be a real vindaloo!  Silsden totally dominated the first twenty minutes up the hill against a very resolute stags defence, and left winger Chris Fell was very unlucky to have 2 efforts overruled by the official.  The pressure on Stainland finally told when again Chris Fell forged to within a metre of the Stainland line, and quick thinking from John Gwilliam saw him dive over from dummy half.  A touchline conversion was the first of six goals for Andy Bowness.  Silsden’s excellent ball retention again paid dividends, and on the last tackle, Tony Fella made an excellent break but was caught by the cover defence but managed to pop the ball to supporting John Williams who scored in the corner.  Bowness could not add on this occasion.  Stainland finally got on the scoreboard with a converted try and dominated for the last 10 minutes of the half and put the tiring Silsden 12 under real pressure, but great defence from Geoff Bowness and Steven Dent out wide kept the stags at bay and they could only add 2 points when Silsden were penalised for a high tackle to give a half time score of 8-14.  Silsden suffered a further blow when Rick Greenwood was not allowed back onto the field by the Silsden physio who ordered Rick to go to hospital despite protestations from the player.  11 men Silsden, with the slope to their advantage went further ahead against the run of play, after excellent drives from Langdale and Billings , Andy Bowness scooted in from dummy half and converted his own try from in front of the sticks.  Stainland then got back into the game to draw back to just 6 points deficit when a bomb was allowed to bounce and was collected by one of the five Stainland players all around the Silsden winger Chris Fell out there all on his own!  If Stainland had been allowed to move the ball out wide, the result of this game would have been totally different, but a massive effort from every Silsden player ensured that even with 11 players, Stainland were never allowed time on the ball.  The work rate of the Silsden defence, led by Neil Jordan was exemplary, and after 60 minutes, some excellent play down the middle of the park saw Andy Bowness find a gap to pass on to the supporting Silsden man of the match Tony Fella who scored under the sticks.  Further tries followed for Andy Bowness and 2 more for John Williams completing his hat trick all converted by Bowness finished off a memorable afternoon for the rangers.  The only dampener being that Silsden will be without Rick Greenwood for 6-8 weeks who has a cracked cheek bone, cracked sternum and a broken rib.

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Last modified: November 16, 2004