Thatto Heath Crusaders 47
Folly Lane 6
THATTO Heath scored an important victory over Swinton outfit Folly Lane in their final home league game of the season.
They took the lead in the 11th minute with a stunning try for county wingman Mike Woods. Having collected a pass in his own half he proceeded to beat almost the whole of the opposing team as he threaded his way through to score out wide. Wayne Jackman converted with a kick from the touchline.
On 15 minutes Folly scored their only try after Heath had spilled a bomb on the last tackle.
Five minutes later Heath prop Paul Littler scattered a group of Folly defenders as he charged his way over from short range to score next to the sticks. Jackman again added the two.
That was the first of three tries in as many minutes for Heath. The next came from loose-forward Darren Harris who followed up a Darren Mitchell break before racing away to score under the sticks. The third was the second leg of Mike Wood's hat-trick and came directly from the re-start. Woods collected the kick off on his own line and went the full length of the field to score out wide. Folly converted a penalty to add to their earlier try before centre Jamie Hill beat his opposite number to score a fine try out on the right wing.
Darren Harris rounded off the first half with a drop goal dead on half-time to give Heath a 27-6 interval lead.
The second half was only five minutes old when Heath re-opened the scoring through winger Neil Prescott who managed to collect a super bomb from Darren Harris and dive over the line.
Twenty minutes passed before the next score as both teams competed fiercely in midfield as Folly found renewed strength in their attempts to stop Heath running away with the game.
But three tries in the last 15 minutes sealed the win for Heath.
First Darren Abram showed his experience with an excellent hand-off to create a gap in the Folly defence for himself, before powering away to cross the line.
Mike Woods added the two. Woods was again on hand to complete his hat-trick rounding his opposite number to score in the corner.
The final try of the game went to Darren Harris who capped a fine personal performance with his second try of the game scoring under the sticks.
Woods converted and took his personal points tally for the day to 16 points.
Canter, Levin and Berg men of the match were Mike Woods and Darren Harris. Crusaders under 16s 26
Haresfinch Bulldogs 22
Crusaders just kept their noses in front to take the spoils in this keenly contested local derby. Both sides showed fine attacking skills and resolute defence to produce an exciting game. Try scorers for Finch were Paul Martlew and hat-trick hero Tim Hodgson along with three goals from Anthony Hampson. Crusaders' tries came from Joe Sullivan, Martin Bailey, Simon Dingsdale and James Burrows who scored twice, Dingsdale completed the score with three conversions. Best for Crusaders were Big John the Butcher man of the match James Burrows followed closely by Martin Bailey, Carl Nicholson, Ste Evans, Carl Traynor and Martin Catterall. Best for Haresfinch was Roy Tickle followed by Ian Robinson, Paul Hevey and James Taylor.
Crusaders under 11s 6
Blackbrook 18
In this hard-fought Cup game Crusaders worked hard but failed to contain this impressive Blackbrook outfit. Points came from a try scored by Ste Taylor converted by Craig Dearden. Man of the match was Alex McClurg, top tackler Ben Robinson. Ryan Robinson, Ste Taylor and Danny Leatherbarrow impressed to earn Coaches Awards.
Haydock Warriors under 10s 24
Crusaders 28
Crusaders got back to winning ways with a much improved all round team performance. Try scorers were Ste Barton, Anthony Harden (2), Shaun Forber and Daniel Hughes with conversions by Ste Barton, Shaun Forber, Martin Harper and Anthony Harden. Joint man of the match was Ryan Hannan and Anthony Harden, top tackler was Andrew Morris and Coaches Awards went to Martin Harper and Shaun Forber.
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