NORTH Ribblesdale’s unbeaten record in Counties One Yorkshire was under the severest of threats on Saturday.

With 80 minutes on the clock, Keighley fly half Alex Brown had just dropped a long-range goal to put the hosts 23-22 ahead in a top-of-the-table clash.

However, there were four minutes of stoppage time allotted by referee Kris Garland (West Yorkshire Society), and Ribb’s player-coach Tom Davidson landed a penalty from the halfway line with the last kick of the match to snatch a 25-23 victory to make their seasonal playing record eight wins from eight.

Keighley, who went into a 10-0 lead in six minutes, were however the first team to prevent the visitors from securing a four-try bonus point, dropping their points per game average from 46 to 43.5.

A crowd of 575 watched the derby, with Keighley running out of programmes half an hour before kick-off, tries by left winger Ralph Wellock, prop Jim Mallieu-Black and replacement Ryan Sumner, plus two conversions and two penalties by 34-year-old Davidson, handing Keighley only their second league defeat in 48 matches on their artificial pitch.

Davidson said: “It was by far our toughest game of the season. Keighley are a physical, well-organised team and they have been together as a side for four years, and you can tell that when you play against them.

“They all know one another, they gelled really well and went through their processes well. I know some of their boys from Wharfedale and they (Keighley) have some quality players in their side so to come here and get the win was really pleasing.

“I didn’t feel like as a group that we were at the races, but the fact that we went to the corner for 10 or 15 minutes we backed ourselves, and that is credit to our team rather than going for the points (via a kick at goal).

“It is mad to say that because when I was 21 or 22 I wanted to kick everything, but Keighley are a good side, they defended well and it was credit to us that we didn’t lose our heads in front of a big crowd (three players were yellow carded, including Ribb hooker Matt Speres).

“We spoke about this fixture on Thursday and the last time we played here was in 2021-22 (when Keighley won 38-6) for the Gordon Throup Memorial Trophy (Keighley won the away fixture 57-0), and he was a massive part of North Ribb and the Dales in general and we didn’t give him the send off that he deserved, and we did it for him here.”

Davidson has only missed five kicks at goal this season, and two of those hit a post, and he said: “I don’t know how many I have kicked this season. I used to look at the Rugby Post every week to look at my stats but I am not really bothered about that any more. I am more bothered about these young lads and our journey.”

Davidson added: “I decided to retire from playing at Wharfedale due to a ruptured bicep and was coaching both at Wharfedale (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and Ribb (Mondays and Wednesdays) but I had a daughter last November and one of the clubs had to give after that.

“I decided to come back to Ribb because of the exciting bunch that we had there and, luckily, I have been joined by a few ex-old boys as well and we have some great lads coming through so the future looks bright.

“As for playing, I pulled my boots back on after six games of last season - we had won three and lost three - and that was our 24th win in a row since then (they breezed through Counties Two Yorkshire last season and are top of Counties One Yorkshire).

“I still have a few years left in me yet, and it is harder going from a muddy pitch to a hard surface than the other way around.

“We adapted to it quite well, although it was centre Jacob Monaghan’s (who is from New Zealand) first experience of an artificial pitch.

“I played on one when I was at Preston Grasshoppers, while our flanker John Padley used to be at Billingham so played on one there as well. People make a lot of artificial pitches but at the end of the day it is 30 blokes playing rugby.”

As for the rest of the season, Davidson said: “We will just keep plugging away. We are lucky that we have quite a large squad so we can rotate players.

“I am loving it here massively. It is not the same as going down to Redruth and Penzance in National League One with Wharfedale, which were great bonding trips on the bus there and back, but I am playing with a great bunch of lads who have invested in the club, love the game and play with their mates.

“As much as we can we travel by train (team buses cost about £700), which is a good way to travel (train to Keighley, taxi to Utley in this instance).

“Obviously Settle has a great place in my heart with cricket and it is nice to see that success replicated in rugby, and this match was a great advert for rugby in the area in front of a big crowd.”

Ribb, who are now on 39 points, five points ahead of Pocklington and nine in front of Keighley, who have dropped to third, are at home to ninth-placed Leodiensian on Saturday.