Elks suffer defeat in cup semi-final.

Elks travelled the short distance to Notts Casuals and after falling behind came back to lead late on, only to lose in the final minute 27-24.

The Elks began brightly and were soon ahead from a driving maul after an attacking line out, Jake Smithurst credited with the touchdown after 5 mins, extras missed 0-5.

Casuals came back strong and score two tries in 6 minutes one of which was converted to make it 12-5 after 18 mins.

From the kick off Casuals made an error and the Elks were soon on the attack, an attacking line out saw Zac Lebeter took clean ball and the forwards drove the maul towards the line, as the Elks broke off the ball was dropped and Casuals cleared.

Individual errors were creeping into the Elks play and Casuals took full advantage to score on the right wing, extras missed making it 17-7 after 36 mins. HT 17-7.

Elks made a disastrous start to the second half failing to deal with the kick off and gifting Casuals an easy 3 points from a penalty stretching the lead to 20-7.

This finally sparked the Elks into life and combined with some changes at half time they had a great period of play, first through Brown who scored following good work by Jake Lamb and Charlie Clarke, converted making it 20-14, this was soon followed by a score from Clarke who showed fantastic footwork to deceive the defence after another break from Brown, Lamb missed the extras making it 20-19 after 57 mins.

Both sides had chances as the game entered the final quarter but it was the Elks who looked to have won the game when Joe Marsden scored following some great work from the forwards, extras missed but the Elks had the lead 20-24 after 76 mins.

Elks had another scoring chance entering the final two minutes but a speculative pass was knocked on and Casuals raced up the field, they were stopped on the Elks 22 but after the ball was recycled they burst through to score, extras added making it 27-24 at full time.

This will go down as a missed opportunity to get to the NLD shield final as after taking the lead the lads should have closed the game out, credit to Casuals who battled back well and are unbeaten in the league below and look certain to get promoted.

Positives from the game were another outstanding performance from Lebeter as well as Charlie Clarke who took his opportunity really well on his debut for the first team.

Man of the Match goes to Zac Lebeter who filled the shoes of Norris at the line out and carried extremely well round the park.

Next week sees a return to league action with a massive game against Southwell at home, a win would see the Elks push clear of the relegation zone, get down to cheer the boys on.