Teams for Saturday 5th October
1st XV Bentham, Harrison, Wilcock, Fletcher, Wynn, Fisher, Cunliffe, Newton, Young (c), Prescott, Hampson, Penn, Bate, Wood, Bullough, Hunt, Jones, Lee, Bridge, Sutton. Warrington at home. Meet at 1.30pm
2nd XV McKenna, Egerton, Faid, Hughes, Eccleston, O,Neill, Bates, Travis, Hampson, Pilkington, Bibby, Aspinall, Grimshaw, Nugent, Boardman, Bains. Kirkby Lonsdale away. Meet at 1.00pm
Hawks From Davies, Hutchinson N, Krause, Waterworth, Heywood, Hutchinson J, Ashurst, Schroeder, Middlehurst, Hilton, Morgan, Brunt, Wright, Thomas, Erskine, Harrison, Greenwood (c), Hillary. Marple at home. Meet at 2.00pm
Vets: From Cunnings, Bailey, Dainty, Hampson, Marsden, Harper, Sutton, Taberner, Ransom, Saunders, McKinstry, Westwell, Woods D., Owen, Billinge, Clegg, Tustin(c), Marrow, Thompson, Unsworth, Marsh, Wood S., Smith. Oldham away. Meet at 1.00pm
Tofts: Porteous, Leake, Hilton, Fallon, McKeever, Yates(c), Miller, Riley, Butler, Osborn, Green G, Grimshaw, Lawrenson, Green B, Smith, Parkinson, Chatterley, Lycett. Pool away. Meet at 1.00pm
Colts: Birkhill, Littlewood, Baxter, Morgan, McKinstry, Eccles, Brett, Baldo, Newton, Wood, Wingrove, Delaney, Pemberton, Ellison, Vernell, Peters, Grimshaw (c), Lloyd. Waterloo away. Meet at 1.00pm Sunday
Southport 12 Leigh 22
LEIGH opened the scoring with an early penalty by Fisher, who was narrowly wide with a second chance.
A try by Wynne was overruled for a forward pass before Fisher put Fletcher through a gap in midfield to score the first try which was unconverted.
The Southport reply was a series of driving mauls from their large pack of forwards which Leigh did well to repel for a half-time lead of 8-0.
From the re-start, Southport fumbled the kick-off and Browning seized onto the ball and surged to the line. The resulting maul allowed Fisher to chip over the flat defence to score and convert his own try.
Leigh's defence against Southport's forward efforts began to take its toll and injuries to Bullough and Prescott saw them substituted by colts Sutton and Newton; and Leigh were caught on the wrong foot when an attack broke down allowing the speedy Southport fullback to show a clean pair of heels to the Leigh line for a converted try, reducing the margin to 7-15.
The Southport pack then applied more pressure and were rewarded with a pushover try in the corner.
Leigh were fortunate that Southport missed an easy penalty to level the scores but responded well when a free kick was moved quickly across the backs for full back Bentham to join the line and cross under the posts for a final converted try.
Leigh Vets 19 Preston 0
Leigh were up against their biggest test this season with a home game against Preston Grasshoppers.
Preston came with no other thought on their minds other than to win. Boasting a record of having only lost one match in the past four seasons, and unable to remember the last time they did not put any points on the scoreboard, Preston were the favourite to win.
Leigh however were about to upset the odds and went ahead with first half tries from Unsworth and McKinstry. Preston did not lie back but came back strong in the forwards. The Leigh pack did well to contain a much bigger Preston scrum.
In the second half Leigh's tackling was outstanding and Preston could not find any gaps in the Leigh defence. With 10 minutes to go inter passing from the backs sent Unsworth through for his second try. Cumming converted two.
Eccles Colts 15 Leigh Colts 20
Leigh travelled to Eccles for this friendly fixture against a team from a higher league without three regular forwards.
Eccles started the stronger and from a rolling maul crossed for a try after seven minutes. Leigh were adding more pressure for themselves by failing to clear their line with a series of missed touch kicks and it was no surprise when Eccles scored a second try on 18 minutes to take a 10-0 lead.
Leigh then began to get things together and after Eccles were caught offside Michael Eccles converted the penalty. Leigh were now getting more into the game and were rewarded with a fine try from Danny Ellison that Michael Eccles converted right on half-time, to take the teams in at 10-10.
From a Leigh line-out on their own 22, Eccles broke through the back of the line and drove on resulting in a try from the back of a ruck to put Eccles back in front 15-10.
To their credit Leigh soon got themselves back into the game with Matt Newton crashing over in the corner to put the scores level. With solid defending and teamwork improving Leigh were beginning to create more, with the forwards now making more yards led by the excellent Iain Wood.
From a five metre scrum Anthony Peters picked up and slipped the ball to Adam Brett to score putting Leigh in front for the first time in the game. Leigh continued to attack and only some solid defending from Eccles prevented any further scoring.
Junior Colts 60 Morley 33
In a high scoring encounter Leigh eventually overcame their Yorkshire visitors after a few shaky moments. Andrews led the way in the Leigh backs with four tries from good support play while Crompton, Morgan and Hurst were prominent in the Leigh forwards, all getting on the score sheet.
Battersby, Halton and Kendall also scored for Leigh with Andrews kicking two conversions and Barker three.
Leigh U14 50 Tarleton U14 0
A first class display of attack and defence destroyed a Tarleton side who defeated Leigh three times last season.
They had no answer to Leigh's extra pace and power. Cunningham and Pendlebury scored two each, Woods, Thompson and Forshaw finished off in fine style and Ruscoe showed his pace in rounding the defence.
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