Leigh Centurions 68 Hunslet Hawks 12 by Mike Hulme
THE Centurions marched to the top of the Northern Ford Premiership with a 13-try demolition of struggling Hunslet.
Four tries from the awesome Simon Baldwin saw Leigh leapfrog Hull KR and sit at the summit with three successive wins.
After two indifferent performances the Centurions produced a stunning display that had the Hawks shell-shocked.
In addition to the magnificent Baldwin, Leigh had top performers all across the field. Half-backs Simon Svabic and Lee Sanderson carved out opening after opening while centres Jon Roper and Mark McCulley collected three tries between them.
For over an hour Leigh scored at better than a point a minute before taking their foot off the pedal and allowing the Hawks in for two late tries.
Baldwin's hat-trick came inside the opening 17 minutes and with Sanderson also touching down, Leigh had the match in the bag before quarter time.
Full-back Neil Turley kept up his try-a-game scoring run with another touchdown and Roper sailed in for two tries in three minutes. Hunslet barely posed any threat and when their defence spilled a Svabic crossfield bomb, McCulley swooped for a try on his full debut to get the second half scoring underway.
Svabic, just back from knee surgery, strolled under the posts for another before Baldwin claimed his fourth.
Two tries in nine minutes from sub forward Rob Ball and Turley's sixth conversion took Leigh beyond the 60 mark. Liam Bretherton sped clear for Leigh's 13th try to set them up nicely for the Christmas programme.
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