Championship One Round-up

A day later than promised, here is the Championship One Round-up.


At South Leeds Stadium Hunslet Hawks got their season away to a flyer with a 40-12 success over rebuilt Gateshead Thunder. The Hawks led 16-0 at halftime with tries from Wayne McHugh, Stuart Kain and Steve Dooler. Kain scored a second try before Liam Duffy went over for Gateshead. David March then put the Haws further ahead and although Joe Brown grabbed a second try for Thunder, Hunslet finished strongly with further scores from Paul March and Michael Mark. McHugh kicked six goals for the hosts with Ryan Clarke adding two for the visitors.

Rochdale Hornets may have limped through their Northern Rail Cup games but they set off like a house on fire to build a 30-6 half-time advantage over Doncaster. Danny Samuel, Dayne Donoghue (2), Wayne English, Craig Johnson and Bolu Fagborun registered tries for the home side and more followed after the break from skipper Phil Wood, Paul Raftery, Dean Gorton (2) and Steve Roper who also added six goals overall. Doncaster registered tries through Grant Edwards (2) and hooker Jack Ely with Edwards (3) and Ryan Steen (1) goaling.

An exciting game took place t Park Lane where Oldham edged things at half-time 14-16. Swinton then took a 20-16 lead before the Roughyeds finished strongly to win 38-20. Dave Hull, Lee Wingfield and Phil Joseph scored tries in the first half for Swinton but they only had a Tommy Grundy effort to celebrate in the second half while Gavin Dodd added two goals. Oldham saw tries from ever impressive Paul O’Connor, Martin Roden, Wayne Kerr and Joe Chandler but the real finishing came from Lucas Onyango who notched a hat-trick with Matte Ashe kicking five goals. The game ended in bad tempered circumstances when Swinton’s Andy Isherwood was sinbinned for dissent six minutes from time before an altercation in the last minute brought red cards for Ian Watson (Swinton) and Kerr (Oldham).

York City Knights found the going tougher than expected against London Skolars. The hosts built an 18-4 half-time advantage after Jason Cook had given the Skolars a surprise second minute lead. Last seasons top try scorer Matt Thomas scored a second London try just inside the second half to give the visitors a chance before three tries in the last quarter dashed their hopes. York saw tries come via Brett Waller, Danny Ratcliffe, Paul Stamp and Jonathan Schofield while centre Lee Waterman continued his recent point scoring with two tries and six goals as the hosts eventually won 36-8.

Workington Town never recovered from a poor start against new boys South Wales Scorpions in the Welsh team’s first ever game and although pulling back to 20-20, a penalty from Crusaders loanster Lloyd White saw the Scorpions emerge victorious – 22-20. Former Crusaders player Aled James had the distinction of scoring Scorpions first try and before half-time Steve Parry and Lee Williams had also scored. Williams grabbed his second before Town roared back into contention with tries from Aaron Low, Neil Frazer, Jamie Marshall and Andrew Beattie before White’s heroics, his third goal of the game brought victory. Just for the record Scott Kaighan also kicked two goals for disappointing Town.