It was the fifth and final time in the season that these two would meet, and it was Batley who came out on top in this fixture. They came from behind at halftime and scored twenty unanswered points to win the game in the second half.
The Bulldogs started the brighter of the two sides and scored first try of the afternoon on the second minute. Dane Manning was held up on the line before passing the ball to Adam Gledhill who dived over the whitewash to score. Dave Scott was on first half kicking duties for Batley, and he converted his first kick to make the score 6-0.
Batley scored their second try on the 13th minute, Keenan Tomlinson went on a driving run through the Rams defence from 20 metres out to go over the line to score. Scott this time missed his conversion attempt to make the score 10-0 to Batley.
The Rams started the fightback on the 15th minute when Lucas Walshaw turned in a tackle to place the ball over the line. Paul Sykes was instrumental in the move as his pass fed Walshaw through. Sykes was on kicking duty for the Rams, he added the extra’s to put the score at 10-6.
Local lad Tobias Richardson was in for Dewsbury to score just three minutes later, it was a superb try from the Dewsbury Moor man, who was impressive throughout the afternoon. Sykes converted the kick to give Dewsbury the further two points to put the Rams ahead.
Batley then leveled things up as they were awarded a penalty on the 21st minute right in front of the posts, Scott converted the penalty to put the scores level.
Dewsbury then took the lead again on the 26th minute when Sykes played a brilliant pass to Glover who stormed over the line to score. Sykes missed a difficult conversion kick on the touchline to leave the score at 12-16 to the Rams.
The away side were down a man on the 35th minute when Daniel Igbinedion was sin-binned after a kick out at Joel Farrell. However it didn’t effect the Rams as they scored again to extend their lead just three minutes later. Dom Speakman found himself a gap and slipped through it to score. Sykes made sure he didn’t miss this kick and added the two points to the Rams tally.
That was the final action of the first half and the score stood at Batley 12-22 Dewsbury.
Batley started their fightback in the second half, Wayne Rettie was supplied a pass on the wing, and then he scrambled the ball over the line in the right hand corner. Pat Walker was now on kicking duties for Batley, and he added the two points by converting the kick and putting the score at 18-22 to Dewsbury.
The Bulldogs then scored two quick tries to take the lead, the first coming from James Harrison in the 60th minute, and the second came from Dane Manning who went over the whitewash two minutes later. Walker kicked both conversion attempts to increase the Bulldogs tally.
Batley rounded off the day by scoring two late tires, the first was scored by Rettie, and the second with a minute to go was scored by Brad Day. Walker again was able to add the extra’s from both tries to make the full time score Batley 42-22 Dewsbury.
