WHILST Ilkley folk were fully expecting the penultimate league match of the season at Heath to join the growing list of West Yorkshire club matches to fall victim to the snow, the Heath chairman was mobilising a team of 40+ volunteers to mount a pitch clearing operation of Herculean proportions.

By the deadline of 10am the pitch was passed playable. Those plans to find a location to watch Wales vs Italy were rapidly abandoned, the team bus organised, and supporters’ travel plans reorganised. The Dalesmen set sail for Halifax and an early 2.15pm kick-off.

Heath were determined to get league points to cement their well-deserved second place in the league, while they still had goals of reaching the Papa Johns Cup in the final at Twickenham.

The game got off to an ominous start. An over hit kick-off gave Heath a scrum on half way. They blasted the ILKLEY scrum backwards and Johnson was dead eyed with the resultant penalty. 3-0.

Heath scored again, this time a try after an Ilkley knock on had taken Heath with a 50/20 to 5 metres from the ILKLEY line. The lineout produced a penalty. The lineout maul took four attempts before they crashed over with Seif Boussada claiming the score and Johnson the conversion. 10-0 with eight minutes gone.

Then Ilkley showed the way to play open rugby in the mud with Blake Morgan and Ben Magee combining to run from deep and find speedster Ben Walker on his wing. Walker made ground before chipping over the defence and outpacing them to the touchdown. Chuckie Ramsay stroked over the conversion to make it 10-7 after 20 minutes.

However the dominance of the Heath scrum was crucial and regrettably Popely had to be sacrificed despite his excellent loose play and accurate lineout throws. Josh Pinder came on to add some ballast to the set piece.

Johnson put his side to five metres out. The lineout secured; Heath only needed one drive before a little pass out to Elliott Spiers on the wing secured the third try. With yet another on target kick, it was 17-7.

All of a sudden, the brave Ilkley resistance was crumbling as a virtual repeat was enough to secure the bonus point, hooker Alex McFadden claiming this one. A rare miss from Johnson and 22-7 was a reasonable reflection on the first 40 minutes’ slugfest.

An ominous start to the second half saw a Heath scrum on Ilkley’s 22 won with ease. Three phases off the back of the scrum saw no.9 Dominic Walsh go over for an unconverted try. 27-7.

The tireless Tom Dickinson, excellent all season, and his lineout pal Alex Powell managed to secure all but a couple of their own throws.

Max Jones, skipper Joe Lowes and Leibster put themselves about to spoil Heath’s attempts at building a big score and with Magee becoming a thorn, the Heath big lads’ threat was snuffed out until the final minutes of injury time when, in a rare exhibition of open play, Heath put their biggest forward Fergus Marsden in for a late try which Johnson converted to make the final score 34-7.

The Dalesmen have injuries to Joe Lowes, JH Johnson and Blake Morgan to worry about ahead of the grand finale to a fairly modest season against fifth placed York this weekend.