Blackbrook 4 Shaw Cross Sharks 8 SO near and yet so far! That was the story as far as Blackbrook were concerned on Saturday.

They lead for about 70 minutes before victory was snatched from their grasp with just five minutes left.

So, Shaw Cross retained their comfortable mid-table position while the homesters hover close to the relegation zone.

It was end to end stuff throughout. Brook held the initiative for over 70 minutes, but the Sharks had a little extra staying power in the heavy conditions to snatch the only try of the game.

The Sharks owe their success to substitute Mark Hardy. Hardy punished a hesitant Brook defence by regaining possession against the feed from a scrum near the Brook line. Although he forced his way over he was unable to ground the ball correctly. Nevertheless, with the feed of the resultant scrum favouring the visitors, Hardy was on hand after the third tackle to plunge over in an identical position for the match-winning try. Blackbrook could not be faulted for endeavour, but they lacked a little extra finesse on the day to pierce the visitors excellent cover defence. Brook's man of the match Darren Mitchell made several excellent diagonal breaks, only to be thwarted on each occasion by a superb copybook cover tackle when a try looked imminent. Hooker Neil Pook was also denied a score by a similar last ditch tackle from Jason Penny, after a superb 35 metre midfield break by prop forward Ian Buckley.

Equally Alan Barker, Graeme Cox, Gareth Hill and Stuart Worsley caused similar problems for Shaw Cross, but the visitors kept their line intact and Brook were forced to take comfort from a Paul Toole penalty goal before the break.

The tackling and defensive cover of the home side was also outstanding as the visitors strove in vain to find a way through. Paul Toole edged Brook into a 4-0 lead with his second penalty goal on 50 minutes before full-back Daryl Senior opened the visitors account with a similar effort 10 minutes later.

The turning point of a very tight game came in the 75th minute with Hardy's try.

Darren Mitchell received the Blackbrook and Construction Power (plc) Electrical Services man of the match accolades, with Ian Buckley, Graeme Cox, Jason Mitchell and Gareth Hill worthy contenders.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.