Round Sixteen of the 2022 Betfred Championship saw one game on Friday night as the Sheffield Eagles played Leigh Centurions, and five more on Sunday afternoon, with the game between Barrow and Halifax having been chosen by Premier Sports as the Monday night televised game.
Sunday saw a deluge of tries as; Bradford hosted Dewsbury, Featherstone were at home to Batley, Workington travelled east to Newcastle, Whitehaven were at home to York and London made the trip to Cheshire to face Widnes.
Leigh made no mistakes as they demolished Sheffield in Friday’s game by 58-4. Mellor, Sidlow and Wardle all scored in the first half with a solitary response from Bass on the half time hooter for a first half lead of 18-4. The Centurions piled on forty second half points with tries from Reynolds, Ipape (2), Macdonald (2) and second tries of the game from Sidlow and Wardle. Reynold kicked a total of nine goals for a thoroughly comprehensive win.
The news would get even better for Leigh on Sunday when the Batley Bulldogs sprang the surprise of the season as they led from the outset of the game and beat Featherstone Rovers in the shock of the season. Manning opened the Batley account before Lockwood levelled. Hooley edged the visitors ahead again but within a minute Briscoe responded. Gledhill again went in for Batley but within two minutes Briscoe was in again for an 18-16 half time lead in favour of the Bulldogs. Hooley extended the lead, but a try for Broadbent showed that the flat cappers were scrapping as hard as they could. The game was won on seventy when Meadows went in for the last try of the game for a 28-20 win.
Bradford Bulls, with their interim coach, scored a stunning 48-6 win over the Dewsbury Rams. Millar had given the Bulls an early lead but Gabriel scored for the Rams just before the half hour to level the scores. Kear and Butler both scored for the Bulls in the two minutes before half time to send the Bulls into the sheds with an 18-6 lead. The second half was all Bradford with tries from Butler, Gill, Crossley, Lilley and Kibula to seal the big win.
The London Broncos suffered heartbreak at Widnes. Taking the lead through Ulberg but Wilde responded for 6-6. Two tries from Parata and one from Macani raced the Broncos into a 22-6 lead but Widnes weren´t throwing in the towel. Dixon clawed one back before the break and tries from Craven, Edge and Ince, the last coming on sixty-nine and snatching a 26-22 win.
Newcastle Thunder recorded an impressive 66-22 in over struggling Workington after Nokes and Foster gave them an early 12-0 lead. Brown got one back for Town but Eaves, Halsall and Day all added tries before the interval for 30-6 at the interval. Day and Dean added two more before Riley and Clegg got in on the act for Workington but it was brief respite as Clark, Hanley and two more from Halsall to complete his hat-trick saw a solitary Clegg response after a commanding performance.
It was a double of Cumbrian losses as Whitehaven trailed from the outset in their home loss to the York City Knights. Thompson, Ellis and Towse all scored inside the opening quarter of an hour for an 18-0 lead and Towse grabbed a second along with a try from Antrobus for a commanding 30-0 lead at the break. Eccleston and King (2) scored for ´Haven as York took their foot off the gas in the second half with Brown and O´Hagan the only City Knights try scorers in the second forty for a 40-16 win.
We will bring you a full match report soon after the final hooter in tomorrow evenings game between Barrow and Halifax.
