On Friday night, for seventy plus minutes there was drama, thrills and spills aplenty as the Challenge Cup came alive in a third round tie between Leigh Miners Rangers and Championship Whitehaven.
Miners roared out of the starting blocks and it was 14-0 after 17 minutes thanks to tries from Scott O'Brien and Ryan Smith while goal-kicker Tom Bradbury displayed his accuracy with three goals from three attempts. It was no more than Miners deserved having set the pace with Daryl Kay, Dean Balmer and Danny Jones working in tandem to set a platform for the rest of the team.
Kay was particularly impressive with an excellent first twenty minutes that saw him leave a host of Whitehaven defenders trailing in his wake and several offloads helped Jones in particular push forward and created plenty of doubt in the visitors minds.
There was also another good cameo from former Centurions forward Liam Coleman who made several runs down the right in the first half while halfbacks Smith and O'Brien were lively.
Although Whitehaven scored tries through Craig Calvert, Graeme Mattinson, Marc Jackson and Reece Fox in the last eleven minutes of the first half and then dded further scores from Richard Farrer, Carl Sice and Dexter Miller before the end, with Carl Rudd booted six goals, the game was much closer than the 40-20 score indicated.
Saturday brought a similarly interesting game with National Conference League Leaders giving Championship One Hunslet Hawks a real run for their money.
Hunslet took the lead against the run of play after 15 minutes when Steve Dooler scored from close range and centre Wayne McHugh converted. The game went from end to end until great play from Ryan Peters saw the East half back twice involved in a move that also featured John Taylor and Carl Redford before Andrew Groves touched down in the corner.
East looked to repel their line before the break but a penalty on the half-time siren saw McHugh convert and Hunslet led 8-4.
The Redford - Groves combination led to a second try for the winger after 42 minutes with Peters conversion attempt bouncing back off the crossbar before Paul March put the Hawks in front.
After the outstanding Gary Middlehurst was held up over the line, Leigh East struck for a third try when fullback Ryan Fieldhouse crossed at the side of the posts before good finishing from Michael Mark saw the Papua New Guinea international claim two tries either side of the hour. The final 15 minutes brought a series of skirmishes as discipline lapsed on both sides. Middlehurst was shown the yellow card for running into one such melee and Darren Robinson made the game safe for Hunslet with McHugh's fifth goal confirming a flattering 30-14 victory.
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