On the third week of the season Wetherby were still searching for their first victory of the season. After being squeezed out of their first two games, Andy Gair's red and white army hosted early pace setters Yarnbury at Grange Park. With conditions perfect for running rugby, the mood remained confident ahead of the game.

Wetherby started the game well and cleared their lines successfully, putting early pressure on the Yarnbury defence. The addition of Russel from Up in the midfield, Rob Adair, brought an extra dynamic to the backline. The first twenty minutes saw a stalemate of two teams struggling to break down the opposition defences.

In a game as tight as this one, it sometimes only makes one defensive error to cause a breakthrough. I'm not naming names, but Chris Atkinson made a bad read in defence and the Yarnbury winger finished well to open the scoring. Maybe if Chris hadn't travelled 170 miles the night before with his idiot best friend, chasing tail, he might have been able to focus a little more. Boys and their toys. 0-7.

Another game where Wetherby had to come from behind. There are easy jokes to be made about Bradley Mason and coming from behind, but this week I'm going to take a different angle. Despite a tough start to the game, the Wetherby discipline was far better. Even Bradley was managing to keep his mouth closed, saving his natural soprano voice for the evenings karaoke. As well as being able to hold a high c note in conversation, his formidable partnership with one of the three tenors Scott Wallis is becoming legendary. Presented with the opportunity to show their dominance 5 metres from the Yarnbury line, they flexed over to give Paul Minns a simple try. 5-7.

Yarnbury tried to respond quickly and looked to use their width again. Wetherby's covering defence was holding firm before Harry Kaye was harshly adjudged to have tackled early and looked as troubled as Jonny Day trying to spell Jennifer on Sunday morning, as he was sent for a ten minute breather.

Wetherby were growing into the game, and starting to play with the shape desired, and looked more dangerous because of it. Jonny Day worked the forwards around the field, and Harry Kaye picked his favourites to run wider into the fringes. After a Steve Hoather burst through the middle, Tom Bottomley reacted quickest and reached out to score the try whilst simultaneously infecting the Horsforth natives with the octopus climbing out of his eyelid. 12-7.

The game remained tight before half-time but Wetherby certainly seemed to be in command. Jack Kaye and Myles Oates combined down the left hand side but Jack was ushered out unsuccessfully, a familiar sight.

Half-Time: Wetherby 12-7 Yarnbury

After the performances of the last two weeks, the obvious questions were raised over whether the red and whites could pull away with their lead and secure the game. Early in the second half, some good interplay from megamind Myles Oates and Harry Kaye set the older Kaye free. Jack's running style is more awkward than his late night taxi conversations, and once again he failed to find the whitewash.

Yarnbury's had two strike plays against the Wetherby defence. Their first form of attack was route one. This was met with some solid work around the fringes from Matt Bartle and AJ Hills, and some colossal hits from the front row as they moved wider. They were as stuck for ideas as Matt Bartle was trying to remove tape from his lats. One wrong move and his extra smedium shirt would rip to pieces!

Unfortunately Yarnbury's plan B proved to be more fruitful. Every time they kicked the ball high to full-back Billy Cale, it was anybody's guess what was going to happen. If he handles freshers week as badly as a high ball, he could be back playing for us next week. An almighty mess resulted in a Yarnbury penalty, to bring them back within two points. 12-10.

You may have noticed by now, that captain midlife crisis has escaped the watchful eye until this point. What has Danny warden been up to now, you might ask? Let me set the scene: it's 10pm in a dark corner of the clubhouse. Danny has been drinking again, and screams a heart felt rendition of Dizzee Rascal's Bonkers on karaoke, as he sees his rapidly approaching forties staring back in the reflection of the screen. Fortunately he buries himself into his work on a Saturday afternoon and carried his heart out!

With Yarnbury getting the upper hand, and starting to get the rub of the green they pushed the ball wide. After Rob Adair was yellow carded trying to turn the ball over, Steve Hoather showed him how. The ball was spread wide into the hands of Jonny Day, who set free Jack Kaye for a certain try. Faced with a simple two on one, he fluffed his lines as he tripped over in a familiar fashion.

Yarnbury worked field position well and were helped by some unfortunate penalty calls to the home side. Despite some strong defence from the forwards, wave after wave of Yarnbury attackers worked them over the line in the last minute of the game. For the third game in a row Wetherby had failed to close a game out in the last ten minutes.

Full time: Wetherby 12-15 Yarnbury

Another really tough loss to take, but fortunately the boys always adhere to the first commandment of rugby:
Win or lose, always booze.

MoM: Steve Hoather - With great moustache comes great responsibility.
DoD: Steve Hoather - Some people are just jealous and mean.