Palfrey heads points stakes

Date published: 16 July 2013


OLDHAM captain Lewis Palfrey heads into the top of the table clash with North Wales Crusaders at Whitebank on July 28 as Championship One’s leading goalkicker and top points scorer.

While Crusaders haven’t played since they demolished Rochdale Hornets 48-0 on June 30, Oldham have beaten Oxford away 22-4 and South Wales at home 50-22 to top the league.

Stand-off Palfrey kicked three goals at Oxford and scored 22 points against South Wales (seven goals and two tries) to leapfrog Tommy Johnson (Crusaders) and Dylan Skee (London Skolars) in the division's goals and points charts.

The top five in each category are:

Goals: Palfrey (Oldham) 50; Skee (London) 44; Johnson (North Wales) 41; Crook (Rochdale) 31; Leather (Oxford) 31.

Points: Palfrey (Oldham) 112; Johnson (North Wales) 102; Skee (London) 100; Leather (Oxford) 88; Murphy (South Wales) 70.

Despite his club’s inactivity in recent weeks, North Wales winger Rob Massam is the division’s leading try scorer with 14.

Tries: Massam (North Wales) 14; Ford (Oldham) 12; Middlehurst (North Wales) 12; Files (Oldham) 10; Caton-Brown (Hemel) and Grant (South Wales) 9.

Oldham try scorers (17 games in all competitions) are headed by 19-year-old centre Jon Ford with 13 and 20-year-old hooker Adam Files with 12.

Making up the top six are Danny Langtree (eight), Dale Bloomfield (seven), Richard Lepori (seven) and Mo Agoro (six).

Neil Roden, the squad’s senior citizen, has scored three tries in only five appearances.

“Not bad for an old man, though,” commented 33-year-old Roden, who will hang up his boots at the end of the season.

In a Roughyeds career spanning 13 years, with two seasons out, he has made a club record 295 appearances, scoring 113 tries.