Thatto Heath 18 Haydock 6 THE 300 or so hardy fans, who braved the elements for this midweek Whitbread Cup tie at Blackbrook were treated to a real cracker.

On a pitch already saturated before the start and made even worse by continuous rain during the game, both teams showed a high level of commitment, both in physical effort and a willingness to keep the ball alive.

The first scoring opportunity fell to Haydock when prop forward Neil Fearnley brushed off an attempted tackle near half way and raced clear into Heath territory. However, his long pass inside to the supporting Craig Haughey went to ground some 25 metres or so from an open line.

Haydock tested the Heath defence with several well-judged diagonal kicks to the Heath right flank, but Neil Prescott was equal to the task.

But Heath defied the atrocious conditions and eventually opened their account with a try from prop forward Phil Southward on 15 minutes. Mike Woods added the conversion.

Five minutes later, left centre Carl Cooper exploited the flimsy cover on the Haydock right flank with a 35-metre touchline run to score in the corner and give Heath a 10-point advantage.

Haydock hit back strongly as the interval approached with Shaun Dolan, Neil Wade and Lee Cooper all making good progress deep inside Heath territory before centre Gareth Hill was eventually brought down close to the line.

Thatto Heath looked likely to hang on to their 10-nil lead until the interval but with barely one minute of the first half remaining prop forward Neil Fearnley grabbed a try for Haydock. Scrum-half Craig Haughey reduced the deficit to just four points with a superb touchline conversion.

Heath wingman Neil Prescott's double strike with tries in the 47th and 50th minutes respectively eventually put the game well out of the reach of their brave rivals.

As the rain continued in the closing stages handling errors became commonplace and Haydock in particular, had several opportunities only to see the ball put to ground at crucial times.

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