Group 11 halfback Tom Clyburn showed the benefits of his initiation to representative football this season when he steered the Parkes Spacemen to a worthy 40-32 victory over Macquarie Raiders yesterday.

The Tooheys Group 11 game at Apex Oval drew only a gate of a little more than $1000 but most would have been impressed the performance of Clyburn.

He crossed for three tries himself, set up four others and his kicking game behind a strong first half wind relieved any pressure that the Raiders could come up with. The visitors led 30-4 at half-time but to be honest, the wind itself was probably 20 to 30 points.

Parkes coach Will Harris was pleased with the win for his players but stressed there was still a long way to go, despite the win assuring them of a place in the top five.

“We’ve struggled for numbers all season and the win will be an enormous boost for their confidence,” Harris said.

“We’ll go from here to the semi-finals and one of our keys players will be Tom Clyburn, he was one of our best today and his kicking game was a real highlight.”

Clyburn received tremendous support all day from the club’s Fijian players who enjoyed the slow pace of the game, made some great front on tackles and finished well on top of their rivals, albeit the winning margin was only eight points.

Five-eighth Alipate Tani had an excellent game as did forwards Illisoni Vonamateuratu and Semisi Tora.

The backs and forwards worked together and the support play across the ground found out the Raiders time and time again.

It wasn’t a good day for the Raiders, who were without playmakers Darren Jackson and David Peachey and during the course of the afternoon had Chris Daley taken off with a bad ankle and Peter Boon was missing for a period with a major back complaint.

“We lacked imagination in attack and couldn’t mount any pressure,” John Croft, deputising for coach Jim Kelly said.

“There was a lot going for us when we got back to 40-28 but we didn’t hold the ball long enough and they scored the two tries that got them home.

“When you are missing your top players, it’s hard to get anything positive going.

“The unfortunate part of this loss is that we have a tough game away to Cobar next week and finish against Narromine. More drama though is that we will now finish third at best and probably have to go back to Cobar for the second time in three weeks to play them in the major preliminary semi-final.”

When Clyburn stepped around Boon in a 60m run to score under the posts and led 12-0 after as many minutes, the alarm bells were ringing.

Boon came off after 18 minutes and didn’t resume until after the break.

He was in severe pain after the game complaining of soreness and cramps.

Boon however was one of the best for his team, the best being prop Kinni Tanaulucavu and Daniel Conn.

Parkes 40 (Tom Clyburn 3, Semisi Tora 2, Danny Read, Alipate Tani tries, Read 6 goals) def Macquarie Raiders 32 (Peter Boon 2, Steve Gibbs, Jock Byrne, Kinni Tanaulucavu, Lawrence Fogg tries, Craig Roworth 4 goals).