Cooke and Grosvenor went head to head in a Championship D1 match at Shaw’s Bridge on Saturday afternoon with Cooke edging it in a feisty game.

Report and pictures from Terry McCreesh

The game took a while to get going after and injury to Grosvenor’s captain Andrew Kelly but Cooke managed to get the scoreboard ticking over towards the end of the first quarter, Stuart Elwood taking advantage of Kelly’s absence to go over off the back of a scrum.

Six minutes later Cooke’s Andy Nelson picked up a loose pass and sprinted for the corner for their second unconverted try taking the score to 10 – 0.

The home side we’re well on top in the scrum and as the first half neared completion a succession of penalties saw two of Grosvenor’s players yellow carded, for a high tackle and a deliberate knock on, leaving the visitors chasing a 10 – 0 deficit with 13 players, and without the talismanic Kelly, as the teams changed ends.

However, a rousing half time team talk saw Grosvenor open up the second half in some style and a kick to the corner ended with prop James McMaster barreling over from a line out. Neil Adams added the conversion to take the score to 10 – 7 in Cooke’s favour.

It took Cooke a while to respond but at the start of the final quarter fullback Jack Knox exploited space out wide to cross for their third unconverted try.

Grosvenor looked for a response but, despite a yellow card for Cooke, they were unable to break down the home sides defence, the game ending without further score.

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