DEMOLITION DERBY!

Swinton Lions 4

THE rest of the Northern Ford Premiership should be quaking in their boots after this New Years' Day massacre.

It's not the margin of Leigh's victory over a side who opened the season with three straight wins that should alert other NFP heavyweights - it's the manner in which it was achieved that should cause the biggest stir.

Leigh have started their new campaign with four successive wins and the week-by-week improvement has been astounding. From a low-key opener against Barrow to progressively better wins against Whitehaven, Widnes and now Swinton, Leigh clearly mean business again.

By a strange quirk of fate, Leigh's four wins so far have all come against teams who turned the Centurions over last season. Perhaps that's an indication of the progress made in the last year.

Leigh are now in second place in the table, two points behind Keighley but with a game in hand. If they are in the same mood at Chorley on Sunday as they were against Swinton on Monday, Lynx will be the second big cat they've mauled in a week!

Swinton were more pussycats than Lions as they were blown off the park by an outstanding first half performance from the Centurions.

Paul Terzis' team were simply unstoppable as they went from 0-0 to 34-0 in a matter of just 22 unforgettable minutes. By the break Swinton were bedraggled and demoralised and the match was over as a contest.

There was little evidence of the drama about to unfold in the opening 18 minutes, although Leigh's Chris Morley and Swinton's Jon Neill spent 10 minutes in the bin after an early set-to.

Even when mounting Leigh pressure finally told and Dave Whittle forced his way over for the opening try, few could have predicted the torrent of points that was to follow.

In the next seven minutes Leigh played some amazing rugby and scored one of the best tries ever to grace their famous old ground.

Hooker John Hamilton collected his first for the club when Simon Baldwin and Neil Turley linked on the blind side.

The second rower and the full-back were just two of many players right on top of their game. Baldwin savaged the Lions' left flank defence with his destructive running while Turley's game simply gets better and better.

Both were heavily involved in Leigh's third try - one that will live long in the memory. Turley did the initial damage by breaking from close to his own line, Baldwin was joined by Liam Bretherton and Simon Svabic in a majestic sweeping movement that ended with Alan Hadcroft taking the final pass and sprinting home the last 20 metres.

Svabic's raking 40-20 kick quickly had Leigh back on the attack and in no time at all winger Dave Jones had crowned his home debut with a try in the corner - their fourth try in a matter of minutes and all without Swinton handling the ball.

Enter Turley again. This time he was creator and finisher. Collecting a high bomb, he released sub John Duffy and backed up in support of Adam Bristow, Baldwin and Andy Fairclough to gallop in for Leigh's fifth try in 16 minutes.

And they weren't done there. With three minutes of the half left Svabic's peach of a long ball put Baldwin through a hole and the eager Turley backed up to grab his second. Svabic took his goals tally to five and Leigh were out of sight at 34-0.

Leigh were never able to scale those heights again in the second half but it hardly mattered as they had the points sewn up.

They did extend their lead to 40-0 in the 52nd minute when another top performer, Hadcroft, was put clear by Fairclough where he set up the position that allowed Bretherton to pick out Paul Anderson to give the centre a free run to the line. Svabic added goal number six.

Turley missed one chance to complete his hat-trick when he put down a Baldwin pass just 10 metres out but it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.

Leigh were still kicking themselves for the way they had allowed Swinton to grab a consolation try from Phil Cushion when they again caught out a slow moving defence with a perfect kick over the top. Just like at Widnes the previous week Turley was there again, this time dribbling ahead to slide in for his hat-trick touchdown.

Swinton will now be able to tell the rest of the division just how formidable Leigh are looking, even at this early stage.

LEIGH: Turley; Hadcroft, Anderson, Fairclough, Jones; Svabic, Bretherton; Leathem, Hamilton, Whittle, Baldwin, Morley, Bristow. Subs: Kendrick (for Bristow 53), Norman (for Whittle 29), Duffy (for Hamilton 33), Bradbury (for Norman 49), Hamilton (for Svabic 64), Whittle (for Leathem 72).

SCORERS: Leigh - Tries: Turley (3), Hadcroft, Anderson, Jones, Hamilton, Whittle. Gls: Svabic (6), Turley.

Swinton - Try: Cushion.