Selby Swans continued their winning mini-steak by comprehensively out-playing West Leeds at Sandhill Lane on Saturday for a deserved win that leap-frogs them over the West Yorkshiremen into sixth place in the Yorkshire One league table.

The conditions were decidedly parky with heavy snow falling for much of the match, but Selby warmed the hearts of their tweed-toting supporters with a great try after thirty seconds as Harry Kelly leapt like a salmon to collect a Henry Wright high kick to feed supporting wingman George Stoker to race in for 7-0. And Kelly appeared to have repeated the trick a minute later, but an offside gave Wests the chance to kick for the corner where, after some resolute Swans’ defending, they showed their intent and competency for Sam Marshall to eventually squeeze in at the corner for 7-5. And then, after more Wests’ pressure, Keir Breakwell kicked a penalty to take their lead to 7-8. So, game on, and a stern test ahead it appeared for the Swans, with Wests looking a much stronger beast than Selby’s recent weakened oppositions. But it didn’t turn out that way as Selby, while not racking up a cricket score-line, took strong control of their opponents and the match to run out comfortable winners.

It’s getting a bit boring now to say the Selby pack dominated their opponents at scrum-time again - but they simply did, again! However, the most pleasing thing about the pack’s performance was the way they won the war of attrition at the advantage line, gaining increasing superiority over the opposition eight, in both attack and defence, until Wests were left looking a little bereft of ideas as to what to do next – which was mainly to kick away possession upfield to try to make some sort of progress.

After a short break to clear the lines of snow, some good positional kicking from Wright took the Swans up to the Wests’ line - and with the Selby scrum in complete control it was fourth time lucky as Hogan, managing to keep the eager, interfering fingers of Scrum-Half Archie Bennett (just like his dad – and stamp on them Liam!) out of the pie this time to touch the pushover down for 12-8. And it seemed a repeat performance was in the offing just before half-time as the pack pushed over again, only for the greasy ball to squirm away from Hogan’s gorilla-like grasp.

Selby’s control over the second half was almost complete in both territory and possession, but a further score was proving elusive with Wests defending fiercely on their line – so a good long-range penalty through the mud from Wright eased the gap to 15-8. West’s could still have drawn the match (as at their place earlier this season) with a converted try, but they simply never got the chance as the continuing forward control, allied to some excellent tactical kicking from Wright, kept them pinned in their own half. Even a yellow card to player-coach Jay Robinson for too much jibber-jabber at the ref (very naughty!) made no difference, and Selby Second-Row ‘finisher’, and beanpole, Bruce Potter gave a more accurate reflection of the day’s play by finishing off more good forward recycling to stretch over to touch down for a final score of 20-8.

Selby now face Beverley in a re-arranged league fixture at home this Saturday, kick off 14:15.