York City Knights 24 Featherstone Rovers 24 Any Featherstone fan making the trip to York today hoping to see Rovers 'kick on' from last weeks game was to be sadly disappointed. In the end it took a last minute try from Richard Blakeway to claim a share of the points and to be fair any neutrals in the crowd watching Stuart's attempted conversion from the touchline would not have been upset to see it miss as they would have thought it cruel to York to lose the game at this stage. It all started so well. Rovers kicked off towards the car park end at the Huntington Stadium and in the first few sets showed good drive to gain yards against the York defence. York on the other hand were restricted to kicking from inside their own 40 metre line and Loz Wildbore was making good yards on the return. A 40 - 20 from Rovers gave them back to back sets and pressure resulted in a penalty for holding down. Richard Blakeway made progress towards the sticks until he was tackled just short and from the resulting play the ball, Kevin Eadie burrowed over the line from acting half. Stuart kicked an easy conversion and with less than 5 minutes gone Rovers were 6-0 in the lead and looking strong. It didn't take long for Rovers to add to this score. Back to back sets again when David March was penalised for 'lying on' on the 5th tackle. Featherstone, as with earlier penalties in front of the sticks, elected to run the ball; Jamie Field was able to turn in the tackle to release the ball to Tommy Haughey who threw a wide pass It only took another 3 minutes though for York to have their say about the way the game should go. Tommy Saxton knocked on giving York a scrum on the Rovers 40 metre line and having made ground with the first two tackles on the right of the field, Grimshaw threw a long pass to the left which Divorty took, stepped off his left foot and cut through to score. The try was converted by Ratcliffe and York were only 4 points behind. At this point in the game, and indeed for most of the first half, Mr Child seemed to be aiming for the world record for the number of penalties and consequently the game had very little chance to flow for either of the teams even when playing 12 v 12 as first Ian Tonks was shown the yellow card for a high tackle quickly to be followed by Danny Grimshaw for the same offence.
Once again the penalties were coming thick and fast in a very stop start game. After one of these penalties York spread the ball well to the right and Mapals squeezed in at the corner. A missed conversion but very soon York were level. A Rover's grubber through on the sixth tackle went dead and as York raced off their line to take the 20m tap, Grimshaw broke free to race 50 metres before he was pulled down. The York players were the quicker to respond and from the play the ball David March went in under the sticks for a converted try. Featherstone's handling at this time was not good and they were finding it difficult to run the moves. The last action before half time saw Mr Child blow for a penalty (was that 20 or 25 for the half) on the Rovers 20m line and this time Ratcliffe decided to take the 2 to give York an 18-16 half time lead.
Once again the game entered a very scrappy phase with neither side able to complete satisfactory sets and a lot of spilled ball. The last 20 minutes saw Featherstone having to do far too much defending. They were reduced to 12 men when Wildbore was shown the red card for a spear tackle. He was the only player involved in the tackle and the player landed on his side and not on his head but Mr Child, on this occasion, did not seem to be left with a lot of choice. York eventually took the lead again when back to back penalties gave them three sets to run at Rovers. The ball came out to the right where it looked as if Oakes had knocked on as the ball bounced back into his hands after going forward onto the tackling player. This was not picked up though and, as he was forced towards the touchline, he was able to dump the ball inside where it was collected by Mapals who dived over for his second try. A good conversion from The final act not surprisingly came on the back of yet another penalty. This gave Rovers the ground to spread the ball both ways until eventually fast hands from right to left created a gap for Blakeway to go over in the corner. Dickens stepped up for the conversion but it fell short and the points were shared.
Half Time 18-16 Referee Mr J Child Scoring sequence 0-6, 0-10, 6-10, 6-16, 10-16, 16-16, 18-16, 18-20, 24-20, 24-24 Game breaker: Loz Wildbore's dismissal meant that Featherstone spent far too much of the last quarter defending a York 13 with only 12 men. Crowd 1053 © 2008 Stuart Lonsdale Any comments (constructive criticism welcomed) or volunteers please email webmaster@featherstonerovers.net
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out for Waine Pryce to go in at the corner. A difficult conversion just shaved the outside of the far post but 10-0 in under 10 minutes and the tie appeared to be going the expected way.
Featherstone added to their total soon into the second quarter when after some scrappy play Joe McLocklan dived over to score near the posts. Stuart converted and once again the gap was 10 points.
Rovers got the first points of the second half when good drives by Hughes and then Houston led to Carl Hughes going over for a try. With Dickens off the field Joe McLocklan took the conversion attempt and failed to score but Fev were back in the lead. 
close to the touchline and York were back in the lead at 24-20. 
