Archie Haddon’s 11 points from the tee were enough to give Dale their first victory of the current campaign. The players made the travelling faithful endure a tense affair; they spurned plenty of chances to put the game beyond Otley; they had a massive amount of possession; the scrum was dominant; the faithful trembled. In the end it was Haddon who calmed the nerves from the tee. He had two important penalty kicks; one at the end of the first half to nudge Dale into the lead at halftime and then, the more important one, with three minutes to go to again take Dale into the lead. Haddon got the Star Man award in the paper because these important kicks were delivered without fuss or fear.

Dale were guilty, throughout the match, of giving possession away. From the kick-off they secured the ball and set up a good ruck. The referee shouted “use it” twice but the ball was not used and Otley had a scrum on Dale’s 22. They won the scrum and went through 5 phases before their best player on the day, fullback Fynlay Hobson, created space for himself to have a clear run to the line. Daniel Reed converted.

Dale decided to take charge and, after great runs from Ben Blackwell and Brad Viner, were soon setting out their stall in Otley’s 22. A penalty award was converted by Archie Haddon. Dale carried on dominating possession and territory after the restart which eventually led to a 5-metre lineout and a cracking catch and drive with Dan Stockdale being awarded a try. Haddon added the extras.

A champagne moment came when Otley kicked deep and the ball was fielded by Dale and the ball passed to No 8, George Hedgley. Many of the faithful looked on in amazement as Hedgley decided to clear the ball to touch and put in a super kick that reminded one of Rob Andrew!

The moment did not last too long as Otley won the line-out and ran in a try, virtually unopposed from distance. Tom Parnell touched down with Reed adding the 2 points. The lead was now changing hands with amazing regularity as Wharfedale bounced back to score their second try. The ball was moved left and some improvised offloading was too much for the otherwise strong Otley defence and Brad Viner took Dale into the lead with an unconverted try.

The half finished with an exchange of penalties to leave Dale ahead by a point at oranges.

The story of the second half was one of frustration for Dale and superb dogged defence by Otley. The home side did have a brief period in Dale’s 22 and converted a penalty kick with 7 minutes left to nudge ahead. Haddon then won the match for Dale with 3 minutes left on the clock.

Not the prettiest game of rugby but always entertaining and the match could have been won by either side in the closing stages. The Otley supporters said that the result was correct as Dale had done enough to win. The travelling faithful were pleased with the result – “a win is a win”, but not overjoyed with some of the play. There were strong performances all afternoon but, sometimes, the decision making allowed Otley to stay in the game.

Next week Wharfedale return to the Avenue where the visitors will be Sheffield Tigers.

Wharfedale Hodgson (Bell 64); Weston, Blackwell, Cicognini, Viner; Haddon, Kaup-Samuels; Dickinson, Stockdale (Collinson 54), Armstrong (Ward 76), Heys (Tweedale 70), Borrill, Pinder (Beecroft 70), Fawcett, Hedgley (c)