Despite going 12 points down in the opening 10 minutes

Featherstone Lions defeated the visiting East Leeds in a

game that looked for a long time like it could go either way.

Gareth Hynes and Dan Hudson did the early damage, before the
inspirational Adam Jones got Featherstone on the board. However,
Tim Scire quickly restored the 12-point gap and Gareth Hynes
continued what was to be a flawless set of conversion kicks on the
day to further stretch the lead and worry the hosts.

It was Featherstone who took a lead into half time though, with hat
trick scorer Darrell Olpherts crossing first and last in a four try burst,
sandwiched by scores from Nathan Fozzard and Jake Perkins.
Fozzard made three of the conversions to make it 26-18.

When the second half began though it was the visitors again who
started the stronger side, Hynes again converting from scores by
Kyle Quinlan and East Leeds man of the match Nathan West.
This gave the home side a four point deficit to overturn as the final
twenty minutes approached, and they showed themselves to be up
to the task when Darrell Olpherts completed his hat trick to level the
scores, before Jack Candin stepped up to give Featherstone the lead
with the boot.

A late drop goal from loose forward Adam Jones then gave the Lions
that little bit of extra breathing space, and the home side defended
well for the final ten minutes to keep hold of their lead and claim
both points.

Elsewhere, in horrendous weather at the Ted Gleave Sports Ground

in Widnes, an undermanned Barrow Lakers struggled to adapt to the
conditions as quickly as the Widnes West Bank Bears, eventually
losing by 42 points to 16. Rhys Ashall led the Bears from the front,
scoring one try and kicking three conversions from tries by Danny
Mullally, Jordan Barr, Matty Carter and Mark Fisher as they took a
26-0 lead into the break. Paul Rickleton spearheaded an
encouraging second half performance by the Lakers as they crossed
three times but a second Matty Carter try, alongside scores from
Richard Arnold and Jonny Crank, saw the home side finish
comfortable winners.

Leeds Stanningley defeated Halifax Siddal by 44 points to 14 with

an outstanding team performance at The Arthur Miller Stadium, the
combination of Stanningley’s and the half back pairing of Jack
Bussey and Niall Murphy taking control of the game early and
denying their opponents much opportunity to play. Lewis Jones,
Jack Bussey, Jamie Avison, Luke Wood, Sam Savage, Niall Murphy
and a Cameron MacKenzie double made up the try scorers for the
home side, with Murphy’s 90 metre breakaway the pick of the tries.
For Siddal, Luke Wood, Dan Patrice and Joe Wriggley crossed with
the prop Ben Benn their stand out player.