Things can only get better

Two weekends, two heavy defeats - things can only get better for Lancashire Lynx.

It was a remarkable scoreline considering that York were runners up to Lynx in Division Two last season.

It would be nice to say that the harsh weather - driving wind and horrendous rain - could be blamed for the defeat but Lynx simply could not contain a rampant York side.

Mark Cain - truly Lynx's slayer after his drop goal helped York beat Lynx 21-20 earlier in the season - helped his side by laying on the opener to John Strange on 28 minutes before scoring himself on 34 minutes.

Lynx's Phil Jones opened the scoring on seven minutes with a superb run that took York by surprise. He then complemented his try with an inch-perfect conversion.

But Lynx second-row Joe Walsh was one of the main architects of the defeat by being sin-binned on 32 minutes for holding a York player down well after he had been tackled.

Just five minutes later, York had established a decent enough margin to rest easy for the second half.

Chris Hopcutt scored York's third and Jamie Benn missed the conversion, before slotting away a penalty to leave the score at 16-6 at the break.

If anything good came out of this game, it was the way the Lynx defended and managed to hold York for the majority of the second half.

Only in the last ten minutes of the game, in a match growing more and more heated, did York manage to break through and complete their scoring spree.

Booth, Strange and Lambert all crossing the line in the final eight minutes.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.