Championship 1 round-up

Correspondent

Workington edged out London Skolars 27-20 at Derwent Park.

The Skolars looked contentious and kept up with a Workington side who are strong contenders for promotion.

Chris McNamara opened the scoring for the away side before Dave Petersen scored his first of the match.

Ade Adebisi scored the first of his three tries for the eventual losing side before Elliot Miller’s two tries proved to be the bread which sandwiched Jamie Thackray’s touch down.

Petersen grabbed his second before Adebisi completed his hat trick with the Skolars only six points down.

However Carl Forber slicked over a drop goal to end any hopes of a shock result for the London side.

 

Oldham were too good for Barrow at the Whitebank Stadium.

They remain the only unbeaten side after defeating the Raiders 32-26 which should have been more for the home side.

Despite levelling the scores before half time at 18-all, Barrow never looked like threatening in the second half.

Barry Pugh got the ball rolling for Barrow after 11 minutes before Lucas Onyango crossed five mintes later.

Dave Ellison put Oldham in the lead before Jack Pedley pulled it back for Barrow. The Raiders re-took the lead with a try moments later from Martin Olster.

However Danny Whitmore made sure the scores were level going into half time.

The second half was all Oldham as they scored tries from Jamie Dallimore, David Cookson and Miles Greenwood.  Barrow replied with James Nixon and James Finch set up a nail-biting finale with his final try of the game.

 

North Wales Crusaders were hammered back to earth after a week which saw them draw against Wigan in the fourth round of the Challenge Cup.

Rochdale Hornets put 54 points past the Crusaders, who could only muster up 18 points in reply.

Despite the Crusaders going ahead after Kriss Wilkes’ try after four minutes, the Hornets never looked like losing this game.

Their reply came from Paul O’Connor, Mark Hobson, Phil Braddish, Steven Roper and Jonny Leather before half time.

The onslaught continued for the Crusaders as Rochdale added a further try from Chris Hough.

Tempers flared on both sides as Anthony Morrison and Gary Middlehurst were dismissed by referee Warren Turley for punching.

After the restart Wilkes grabbed his second try before Leather also scored his second of the game. John Cookson scored before Rochdale took their foot off the gas a little bit. This allowed Rob Massam and Danny Hulme to pull back the scores for Crusaders and inject some pride into the team.

However Rochdale had the final say with a Adam Bowman try with two minutes to go.

 

Gateshead remain winless despite earning a bonus point against Whitehaven, who won 30-18.

Robin Peers scored the first try after only three minutes catching Haven cold.

However Ben Karalius replied for the visitors after taking their time to get into the game, and Max Wiper put the Cumbrians ahead.

Mike Mitchell scored to keep the scores level, but Richard Varkulis quickly sent Haven into the lead at half time.

Haven began out scoring Gateshead with two tries from Craig Calvert and one from Andreas Bauer meant Ryan Clarke’s try for Thunder in the second half was only worth the one point.

 

Doncaster’s heavy win over South Wales meant it was a miserable Sunday for both the Championship 1’s Welsh sides, as the Scorpions fell 46-12.

Doncaster started and finished strongly with the nucleus being a Tom Hodson hat trick.

Craig Robinson and Jack Ely scored inside six minutes before Hodson got his first.

Liam Cunningham added another try before half time in reply to South Wales’ try from Dalton Grant.

Kyle Bibb, Lee Waterman and Kieran Hyde all extended the home side’s lead as Lewis Reece could only add consolation for the Scorpions.