Conditions for rugby were excellent at Brantingham Park on a dry, sunny Saturday, and a sizeable crowd was in attendance.
They got what they wanted two, as hosts Hull Ionians recorded a 24-12 win over a below-par Wharfedale in this National Two North clash.
The visitors started well, winning most of the possession and territory, but mistakes at the vital moment prevented any troubling of the score board.
Scrums were evenly contested, but Wharfedale had an advantage in the lineout, disrupting Hull Ionians' set plays.
After 15 minutes, Hull Ionians managed to hack the ball out of their half, and in the race for the Wharfedale line Will Beecroft was just able to disrupt the Hull Ionians winger, causing a knock on over the try line.
After 32 minutes the deadlock was broken when a high tackle gave Hull Ionians the opportunity for an attacking lineout.
They executed that perfectly, driving hard into the Wharfedale pack and then spinning the ball wide for Cam Burnhill to score just left of the posts, with Lewis Minikin adding the extras.
On the stroke of half time, Ionians won an attacking scrum in the Wharfedale half, and after several hard drives down the middle, clever ball handling resulted in Sam Pocklington scoring under the posts.
Minikin added the extras to make the score 14-0 at half-time to the buoyant hosts.
The second half started with neither side in the ascendancy until a charged down clearance kick in the 53rd minute resulted in an attacking scrum for Hull Ionians.
Off the back of that, they exploited space out wide for Burnhill to score his second try, Minikin making a difficult kick look easy to take the score up to 21-0.
From the restart, Wharfedale got some momentum, and after several infringements Ben Smith was shown a yellow card.
From the resulting lineout, Ben Blackwell was driven over for Wharfedale's first try, with Robbie Davidson adding the conversion to make the score 21-7.
But moments later, Hull Ionians took a quick tap penalty and Louis Verity was yellow carded for making the tackle inside ten metres.
Minikin stepped up and scored the resulting penalty to make it 24-7 in his side's favour.
In the last 10 minutes, Wharfedale brought on all their substitutes and were rewarded almost immediately.
From a good Wharfedale scrum, Verity made a break, carried on by Rian Hamilton.
He offloaded the ball on the floor to Harry Bullough to score out wide, but the conversion was missed, making the final score 24-12.
Wharfedale, currently sat fifth, have an almighty task to try and get back on the winning trail, as they host title-chasing Sheffield this Saturday.
