The grass was perfect and the pitches marked out by our stalwart groundsman Richard Nicholson, writes Paul Gabel. His attention to detail keeping our pitches in tip top condition, but credit should also go to the helpers in the past who relentlessly nurtured the land week after week to produce the best pitches in Yorkshire today and we say thank you

A new look Selby was on show today, the hard work started around 2 months ago in preseason and was clear to see the rewards on and off the pitch. The whole club has a season focus of friendship, community and family with a little bit of rugby in there for good measure.

The game was tough from the get-go, battling with a strong Cleckheaton side. It started with the first quarter and both teams camping in each others 22 for periods of time, unable to break the defensive line. Finally, the Selby forwards were able to cross over with a joint effort and allowing James Hunt to cross the white wash for the first try of the season. A spell of back and forth rugby saw the crowd cheering the home side on and it was great to hear.

Selby were bonding on the pitch and this showed with the teamwork attitude and resulted in a well worked try for George Stoker, coming into the line at speed and Cleckheaton could not scramble their defence in time for him to cross the line leaving Selby in front 12-0 with the conversion successful. Cleckheaton were able to pull on back before the break leaving the score 12-5 at half time.

The start of the second half brought more of the same, good rugby played by both teams and 22 to 22 with good passages of play from both sides with the only difference being that Cleckheaton looked more comfortable than Selby and this resulted in try’s from Cleckheaton equalling and then pulling away from Selby 12-17.

At this point in a game last season, Selby would run out of steam, not having any subs and the heads would go down allowing the opposition to romp home more try’s. However, this season is different and heads went up, subs came on and allowed the teamwork and bonding to continue.

As the game started the last 20 minutes, Cleckheaton had the rub of the green and were able to cross the line 2 more times giving them a lead of 17-27 and again, with the crowd behind Selby, the team rose to the challenge and fought themselves back into the game with a try from Harry Turner and converted by George Stoker.

Selby continued the battle in good spirits and produced several phases to create a small space on the outside for Adam Cook to work his magic and score setting up a tense last few minutes of the game and the scores 24-27.

From the kick off, both sides wanted to to play rugby and a short spell of back and forth allowed Selby to push deep into the Cleckheaton 22 when the referee blow for an infringement in favour of Selby, this allowed George Stoker to kick a penalty straight down the middle of the posts to secure the draw 27-27 at the final whistle.

Credit to all involved both on and off the pitch and hope the crowds come back for more during the season ahead.