Defeat continues Dinnington’s rollercoaster seasaon

The rollercoaster season of Dinnington in the Yorkshire First Division of the National League continued with a 36-22 defeat at the hands of high-riding Beverley.
Jonny West, who was in sound kicking form for Dinnington at Beverley.Jonny West, who was in sound kicking form for Dinnington at Beverley.
Jonny West, who was in sound kicking form for Dinnington at Beverley.

Afetr their easy triumph the previous week, hopes were high that Dinnington could upset the third-placed hosts.

But the reverse left them ninth in the 14-team table and hopping they can recover this weekend when they entertain bottom-of-the-table Hullensians (kick-off 2.15 pm).

Dinnington were given a good chance early on as Beverley knocked-on inside their own 22, but they conceded a penalty, allowing the home side to clear.

Beverley won the lineout and were awarded another penalty, which they took quickly to get up to Dinnington’s line. They were held up but, from the scrum that followed, they moved the ball wide to score an unconverted try with fewer than five minutes played.

Dinnington responded well and, within three minutes, they were 7-5 up after Rob Leivars followed up a ‘grubber kick’ to score by the posts and Jonny West converted.

Sadly, they didn’t hold the lead for long as Beverley ran the ball back from a box kick, created an overlap and scored in the corner to move 10-7 ahead.

West levelled two minutes later with a drop goal before Beverley countered from a clearance kick to score by the posts.

The tit-for-tat sequence was broken two minutes later when the home side broke from a lineout to score again and stretch their lead to 22-10 by half-time.

Dinnington missed a chance at the start to the second half, but soon made amends as they spread the ball wide for Connor Brown to score, cutting the deficit to seven points.

This set up another scoring frenzy. Beverley found a gap at the side of a ruck to score and then gave away a penalty at the restart which enabled Dinnington to kick to the corner, set up a catch-and-drive and put Dean McAulay over, with West converting.

At this stage, with the hosts 29-22 up, the game was certainly in the balance, but Dinnington handed the momentum to Beverley by knocking-on inside their own half, allowing the home side to build pressure.

The outcome was decided with 15 minutes to go when the visitors allowed the home full-back to run almost the length of the field, returning a clearance kick, to score under the posts.