West Park Leeds 3rds 12 vs. Selby 3rds 31

It was second versus third in the Central/North District League Division 2 tie at The Sycamores, a venue recently graced by England’s finest during their pre Six Nations camp.

Selby’s finest were on show on Saturday afternoon, with both the first XV and the third string being entertained by West Park with the Swans securing the bragging rights in both fixtures.

The Thirds continued their early scoring habit with the opening try on 5 minutes as Ted Townend scrambled over after excellent work by the evergreen Mickey Parsonage.

Parsonage extended the lead on twenty minutes when he found himself on the end of a good burst by Ben Spence, crossing close to the sticks to allow Townend to stroke over the extras

West Park struck back shortly after, intercepting a Selby pass on half way to reduce the arrears. Selby however continued unruffled and hit West Park with a stinging riposte as leading scorer Aiden Pearce ended his recent barren spell with two well taken tries just before half time, Townend converting both to put the Swans 26-5 up at the break.

Selby struck again shortly after the re-start with Parsonage finding the gap and ghosting through to take the game well beyond West Park.

The game became a turgid affair with little to commend it as a spectacle. West Park stuck to their game plan manfully, frequently refreshing tired legs and were unlucky not to score on more than one occasion as they pressed Selby. They did finally manage to cross and convert right on the final whistle

There were strong performances for the Swans with Parsonage and John Taylor presenting West Park with all kinds of problems. Simon Lewis quietly and effectively went about the business of thwarting Park’s plans at source. Danny White again delivered a fine performance and Scott Adamson twinkled elusively around the fringes.

On the flip-side there were a number of worrying withdrawals due to injury with Spence and Simon Lee both suffering twisted knees and Adam Lee tweaking his groin. They now have a week to apply the ice-packs and recover before the 3rds juggernaut arrives at Yarnbury next Saturday