The importance of this match to both teams was evident with the early arrival of Wakefield side Sharlston and the large crowd that was in attendance. The prize at stake being promotion to Division 3.

As expected, the opening exchanges were fierce but with referee, Chris Radford, having the luxury of touch judges Richard Hall and Phil Tozer, the match ran very smoothly.

Whitehall’s back 3 of Tony Power, Richard Casanove and Craig Riley tackled anything that moved and the front row prop forwards, Pete Williams and David Skinner, drove the ball in hard and gave the Rovers defence a hard time all evening.

Whitehall attacked, and Craig Riley kicked a bomb to the corner, Paul Barraclough leapt high into the air to collect the ball and turned inside to find his centre, Andy Clay, who shot over for the Warriors first try.

Ollie Dugdale showed his expertise with the boot and kicked the goal from the touchline.

On 20 minutes scrum half, David Spivey, who is always in the thick of things, showed the dummy and sped over for a great solo try and with Dugdale’s conversion extended the lead to 12 points.

Sharlston then put the Warriors under some intense pressure but all they got was 2 points when Craig Riley stole the ball in a tackle.

Rovers skipper, Tony Palmer, took advantage of a rare Warriors lapse in defence to crash over for a converted try and keep his team in the game.

Warriors captain, Baz Stead, was also leading his team by example and was throwing the ball out well to his strong centres Rhys Brown and Andy Clay who were proving to be an handful for the Sharlston defenders. A high tackle on Brown resulted and Dugdale put two more points on the board for Whitehall.

With the clock ticking down to half time, Spivey added a one point drop goal to bring the home team in with a 15-8 lead.

Whitehall’s coach, Richard Darkes, reiterated the tactics with his team talk and the Warriors came out for the second half even more determined.

Baz Stead was instrumental in the next try as he dummied his way to the Rovers line but foiled the defenders with a lovely inside pass to Simon Howland who strolled over the line. Dugdale easily converted.

Man of the Match, Stead, continually punted the ball down field to dishearten the Sharlston side and their frustration resulted in another silly penalty which Dugdale converted.

David Spivey worked a set piece with the hard running Richard Casanove and there was no stopping the rampaging second rower as he took three men over the line with him. The goal kick was a formality for the sure footed Dugdale.

Andy Sadler and James Spivey put in a couple of big hits to quash any faint hopes that a stunned Sharlston may have had and big Pete Williams crowned a superb personal performance with the final try scattering defenders on a block busting run to the line.

Dugdale completed the scoring with a conversion, a 100% success rate with the boot, and another outstanding personal performance.

Whitehall guaranteed promotion with this win and on Saturday can put the icing on the cake if they can beat Slaithwaite in the final league match of the season and clinch first place in Division 4 to go up as divisional champions.