It was a beautiful autumnal day at Moor Lane as we welcomed illustrious neighbours Morley for this Regional 2 North East league game. The Maroons will be celebrating their 150th anniversary in a few years and have an impressive history. With eleven Yorkshire Cup wins and having played in National League 1 which is the equivalent to today’s championship, its a curious fact that they have never beaten Pontefract in a league game. Was that about to change? Only time would tell.

It was also good to welcome visiting match official Euan Black from Dorset & Wiltshire Society who had a busy but excellent game.

Ponte playing towards the clubhouse in the first half soon stamped their superiority in the scrums onto the game. Morley’s indiscipline cost them as they conceded penalties handing Ponte an early 3:0 lead thanks to the boot of Kay. But this is a good Morley side, and they were unlucky to be denied a score. They got their reward soon afterwards as they pressured the Ponte line and crossed for a converted try.

The Ponte pack were just getting into their stride and showed their intent through a well-executed driving maul from a line out for Brodie Matthews to score a converted try in front of the club house. The score was now 8:7.

Morley were not to be outdone however and attacking down each flank scored two unconverted tries. Morley’s under pressure pack however were starting to buckle and before half time a slew of yellow cards resulted in a penalty try for Ponte. The half time score was 15:17.

Ponte started the second half brightly and were soon rewarded with a Kay penalty to make it 18:17. Ponte extended the lead when recent signing Kieran Thornton proved what a valuable player he has become with a barnstorming run to score s further converted try making the score 25:17 with around 10 minutes to go.

Morley wingman and their man of the match Theo Tyrer scored probably the best try of the game after breaking through the middle to race under the sticks for a converted try. With the score standing at 25:24 it was still anyone’s game. The clock was in favour of Ponte however, and the forwards starved Morley of possession for the final minutes of the game, and sealed the bonus point win with another push over try for man of the match Brodie Matthews making the final score 30:24.

It was a well-earned victory against good opponents who will have better days in this league. Our forward power and discipline (Morley had five yellow cards) were the main difference between the two teams.

There were many strong performances particularly in the front eight. Kieran Thornton impressed again and the front row union of Smith, Anderson, Potts and Webb were outstanding. Club stalwart and wordsmith Mick Edwards summed it up best: "The word mighty is overused in sport but it certainly applied to our pack yesterday."

For the time being at least Ponte are still yet to be beaten by Morley in the league.

We would like to thank Buckophotography for their outstanding images, our U9’s for performing Ball Boy duties, AM t PM Catering for preparing pre and post match food, and our hard working bar staff for keeping everyone refreshed throughout the day.

The 1st XV have a week off next Saturday but return to action at Old Crossleyans on October 9th. Please note that kick off times will now be at 2:15 after the clocks have gone back.