Co-operative Championship Round-up 1

Featherstone Rovers opened with a solid 36-10 victory over Batley at the BigFellas Stadium. Rovers led 24-0 at halftime and scored tries through Jon Steel (2), Matty Dale, Ian Hardman (2) and Liam Welham. Kyle Briggs kicked six goals. Batley responded with second half tries from Jason Walton and the in-form Jon Campbell while Gareth Moore kicked a goal.

An exciting game over at the Shay eventually saw Halifax emerge victorious over Sheffield by 32-26. The Eagles twice established leads of 12-0 and 26-12 only to be chased down by Fax who saw a hat-trick from Shad Royston and further scores from Sean Penkywicz and Rob Worrincy. Lee Patterson kicked six goals. Sheffield registered tries from Cook, Menzie Yere (2) and Asley Thackeray while Mitch Stringer (3), Tangi Ropati (1) and Thackeray (1) added goals.

Over in France, Toulouse opened the scoring but Dewsbury went to the interval with a narrow 12-10 advantage. They then established a 22-14 lead after 63 minutes only for the hosts to overtake the Rams in the closing stages. Vincent Duport, Sebastian Planas, Rory Bromley (2) and Yohan Tisseyre scored tries with Nathan Wynn adding three goals. Scott Turner impressed for Dewsbury with two tries while hooker Mike Emmett and Andrew Bostock also got over the line for Pat Walker to kick three goals.

The other game saw Widnes win 72-10 at home to Keighley Cougars - a result you can read about more here: http://dprl.blogspot.com/2010/02/co-operative-championship-match-report.html

On Thursday night Champions Barrow and relegation reprieved Leigh Centurions fought out a thrilling 20-20 draw before the SKY TV cameras. Experienced fullback Stuart Donlan (2) and Dave Alstead scored tries for the Centurions while stand-off Tim Hartley kicked three goals and Mick Nanyn booted the equalising penalty after the final hooter had sounded. Barrow scored first through Jamie Rooney but trailed 12-6 at halftime before a whirlwind start to the second half brought tries for Andy Ballard, former Centurion Danny Halliwell and Chris Young before Leigh fought back near the end.

The Championship takes a break for a week while outstanding Northern Rail Cup and Carnegie Challenge Cup fixtures take centre stage.

Round 2 of the Championship sees the following fixtures:

11th March:

Batley v Halifax (SKY) (7.30)

13th March:

Whitehaven v Toulouse (6.00)

14th March:

Dewsbury v Featherstone (3.00)

Keighley v Leigh (3.00)

Sheffield v Keighley (3.00)

Please return tomorrow for a round-up of Championship One.