Championship: Leigh go top, York win thriller, Barrow & Batley score 40

Steven Hughes 05 Jun 2022 6:50 PM

Leigh Centurions have gone top of the Championship for 24 hours at least, after beating Halifax Panthers 36-0 on Sunday.

Adrian Lam’s side took advantage of Featherstone not playing until Monday with a big win over the in-form Panthers. Blake Ferguson and Nene MacDonald scored two tries apiece, with Ben Reynolds and Ata Hingano also crossing.

That win for Leigh also allowed York to tighten their grip on third place, although they were given an almighty scare by London Broncos.

They trailed for the majority of the game. London led 18-6 at half-time, and 28-18 with 15 minutes to go. Lewis Bienek, Brad Foster, Daniel Hoyes, Ilies Macani and Alex Walker were all on the board.

The Knights battled back to 18-18 all thanks to tries from Liam Harris, Jordan Thompson and Matty Marsh. They then turned the game on it’s head, thanks to a double from AJ Towse and another from Harris. A sin-binning for London’s Brock Pelligra would prove crucial.

Jude Ferreira scored for London to set up a grandstand finish, but it would finish 36-34 in favour of the Knights.

Meanwhile, Batley have replaced Halifax in fourth after a resounding 46-0 win over bottom-of-the-table Workington. Dale Morton crossed for four tries, with Tom Gilmore, Lucas Walshaw, Luke Hooley and Josh Hodson completing the scoring.

Barrow also tightened their grip on a play-off place after a 44-4 win over Widnes. They fell behind, courtesy of a Ryan Ince try, but then ran in eight unanswered tries. Tee Ritson and Jarrod Sammut scored two each, with Jarrad Stack, Ellis Gillam, Matt Costello and Dan Toal also going over.

Sheffield also moved within three points of the play-off places with victory at Newcastle. Anthony Thackeray scored twice, with Josh Gudzek, Matty Chrimes and Izaac Farrell also scoring tries.

The Thunder responded with tries from Josh Woods, Riley Dean and Sam Halsall, but fell to a third straight Championship defeat.

In the big game at the bottom of the table, Whitehaven were able to come from behind to beat Dewsbury. Two tries from Andy Gabriel, and another from Adam Ryder had the Rams 18-8 in front at the break. Andrew Bulman responded for Whitehaven.

Second half tries from Ryan King, Dion Aiye and Nikau Williams turned the game around and completed a much-needed win for Whitehaven- their first win since their derby win over Workington.

The round will be completed on Monday when Featherstone take on Bradford.