FOUR tries scored by stand off Neil Alexander were not enough to save Lynx from their ninth consecutive defeat in front of their lowest crowd of the season.

Conceding more than 40 points again wouldn't exactly leave you oozing confidence that Lynx were on their way back to the big time.

However, there were signs of a recovery in this 47-28 defeat and there certainly seemed to be some spark there against the high flying Batley Bulldogs.

Neil Parsley was unlucky not to score in the opening minutes after combining well with Darren Abram down the left before the Bulldogs defence pushed him into touch.

The first ten minutes were cagey with both sides battling to gain the upper hand.

Typically, it was the opposition who got the breakthrough. After moving the ball to the right wing they pushed the ball all the way back to the left for second row Grant Miers to touch down on the wing.

Neil Alexander put the home side back in touch minutes later when he shot over the try line to score in the 12th minute.

Up until that time Lynx had been coping quite well in defence but then seemed to be mesmerised by Batley's ability to keep the ball alive.

Taking advantage, the Bulldogs stand-off Richard Price dived over to put some daylight between the two teams.

Although they were not scoring, Lynx were having a good spell and winger Dave Jones and hooker Tommy Hodgkinson were playing particularly well.

The Bulldogs, though, were also playing well and Roger Simpson put winger Paul Gledhill through after a great break through the Lynx defence.

Bulldogs scored again, this time down the right wing, to go into the interval at 18 points to 6.

Steve Gee, back from injury and on as sub, immediately made an impression in the second half with some great driving runs.

His hard work was often wasted, however, when a team-mate would lose possession almost immediately.

Poor tackling let in Miers for his second try which gave Lynx a mountain to climb.

Alexander though came back with a strong run to score his second under the posts for a great try.

Alexander gave the home side a great chance to come back into the game when he dived on a grubber kick to score his hat-trick making the score 24 points to 18 in favour of Batley.

The Lynx game collapsed after a bomb had been put up and a mix-up in the Lynx defence allowed loose forward Paul Harrison to take advantage and score under the sticks. Further tries from Mark Cass, Grant Miers, sub Darren Moxham and Roger Simpson sealed it for the Bulldogs.

Tries from second row Sean Geritis and a magnificent fourth from Alexander were not enough to save the day for Lynx.

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