Yorkshire One - Malton and Norton 37, Dinnington 20. AS expected, Malton had a fight on their hands against Dinnington, who are battling to ensure their league survival.

And it was Dinnington who were first out of the blocks. Having missed a simple penalty chance, visiting fly-half Dean Lax soon made amends with another attempt when Malton were caught offside.

Straight from the restart, the visitors again struck. Working their way into the Malton 22-metre area, they constructed a well-executed move and Lee Paxman took advantage of a gaping hole to touch down under the posts. Lax converted and Malton knew they had a battle on their hands.

The outstanding feature of the current Malton side is their refusal to panic and after appraising the situation they set about rectifying matters. A break from midfield by James McKay was carried on to the Dinnington line, where Carl Muscroft was on hand to take the final pass to open Malton's account.

Dinnington soon hit back as another well-executed move set up flanker Russ Winters for his side's second try. Again Lax converted.

Malton's response was again swift as Cooke converted a penalty for a Dinnington infringement. More good play from both forwards and backs took play to the visitors' line through a series of drives. Ryan Lonsdale eventually went over for Cooke to convert and bring his side within two points.

Cooke and Lax exchanged further penalties before the break to give Dinnington a slender 20-18 lead at half-time.

With the stiffening breeze behind them, Malton's set scrummage was working efficiently and their fitness began to have an effect as half backs Jon Newsome and Chris Creber controlled affairs behind the pack.

James McKay was proving to be a handful with his powerful runs and gained just reward when he burst away with 40 metres to go to the line.

Brushing off a couple of would-be tacklers on the way, he had the audacity to sell a dummy to the last defender in the in-goal area before touching down to put Malton in front. Cooke converted and the spirit seemed to drain from the visitors.

With the vocal support now getting noisier, Malton set about putting the game beyond the grasp of a valiant Dinnington side. Firstly, a very good move from a set scrummage close to the Dinnington line opened a gaping hole for Ian Cooke to storm over between the posts and convert his own score.

Creber was now using the touchlines to find territorial position and the visitors were on the back foot for long periods. A Cooke penalty attempt rebounded into play from a post and Andy Mitchell was inches away from taking the rebound and adding to his side's tally.

However, the next score was not long in coming and it was points machine Cooke who took it. He converted to give himself a personal tally of 22 points in the game and boost his season's tally to 219.

With four games remaining, Malton would appear to be in an unassailable position with a four-point cushion at the head of the table. However, all of the sides still to play are involved in the relegation battle and will fight tooth and nail to topple the leaders to save their own position.

Updated: 10:08 Wednesday, February 25, 2004