Dewsbury Rams 34pts, Lancashire Lynx 27
FOR the second week running Lancashire Lynx found themselves on the end of a narrow defeat in pulsating encounter at The Rams Stadium.
Despite going 14 points down in the first 17 minutes, Lynx hit back to lead by five points with 10 minutes left, but two late tries swung the game Dewsbury's way to deny Lynx a deserved victory. After the game Lynx coach Steve Hampson had nothing but praise for his team. He said: "I cannot praise the players enough or their overall performance during the 80 minutes. It was unfortunate that two mistakes late in the game robbed them of a deserved victory.
He also singled out Tommy Hodgkinon saying: "Throughout the game in attack and defence Tommy was magnificent and it was certainly his best performance in a Lynx jersey.
Lynx began the game poorly with a series of unforced errors which gave the initiative to Dewsbury. They made this count with three tries in the opening 17 minutes from Adrian Flynn, Brendan O'Meara and Mark Haigh with a conversion from Greg Pearce putting them well in control.
However, Dewsbury failed to capitalise further and Lynx began to fight back and they dominate the rest of the half making the Dewsbury defence look very ordinary as they continually broke through the first line of defence.
They were rewarded with tries from Dave Ratcliffe, Steve Gee, Neil Alexander and P J Solomon with two conversions from Dave Murray to give Lynx a 20-14 half time advantage. Lynx continued to dominate in the early stages of the second half with continuous pressure on the Dewsbury try line, but despite being held up twice over the try line they were unable to stretch their lead.
Dewsbury were level in the 50th minute with a converted try from Barry Eaton, but Lynx roared back with a drop goal from Neil Flanagan and a converted try from Tommy Hodgkinson to give them a seven point cushion.
The game turned Dewsbury's way 15 minutes from time when Lynx were penalised which gave Barry Eaton the chance to reduce the arrears which he gratefully accepted. This gave them new life and a mistake from the normally reliable David Jones gifted them a chance which saw Barry Eaton scramble over the try line.
The game was sealed for Dewsbury six minutes from time when Andrew Spink dived over for a converted try. Lynx continued to battle forward until the end, but were unable to turn the game their way.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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