Gutsy ’Head storm clear

WATERHEAD under-15s moved clear of local rivals Oldham St Anne’s at the head of the North-West Counties Youth League division one table, thanks to a 22-6 win in a tough game against Leigh East.

The Leigh side, second bottom of the table, opened the scoring after 10 minutes with a converted try, before the home side hit back with an unconverted Jonathan Fouldes effort to trail 6-4 at half-time.

Waterhead tidied their game up and started taking it to Leigh, with Daniel Yates and Ben Whitehead distributing well.

Josh Johnson then went in for a fine try, goaled by Ben Whitehead, to edge the hosts ahead 10-6 and from that point on it was all Waterhead.

Fouldes went in again, goaled by Whitehead, and the last try out wide from Sean Sedgewick, plus a conversion off the touchline from Whitehead, saw Waterhead home.

Waterhead’s under-nines, meanwhile, showed off their continuing improvement with a 10 tries to three victory over Accrington.

Dane Taylor led the way with a first half hat-trick and man-of-the-match Reece Shaw (two) scored his first ever points in rugby league.

Other scorers were Mason Edmondson (two), Keegan Brennan, Will Dickinson and Joe Thewliss, who walked away with the top tackler award. Connor Slicker was voted top parents’ player after moving into midfield from the wing to enjoy his best game by far.

SADDLEWORTH RANGERS under-16s went two point clear at the top of North-West Counties division two with a 26-0 win away at Hindley, who had no answer to some well disciplined defence.

On attack, man-of-the-match hooker Sam Shaw consistently tormented the Hindley defence, supported well by Kristion Constantinou and Jack Francis.

The whole squad contributed to keeping a 100-per-cent record intact and a mouth-watering top-of-table clash with Leigh Miners Rangers now awaits this coming weekend.

Try scorers were Francis (two), Sam Wilson, Constantinou and Joe Greenwood, who kicked three goals.

It was agony for Rangers’ under-nines, who came close to completing a superb comeback against in-form Latchford.

Down four tries to one midway through the first half, Rangers appeared to be staring at a heavy defeat, but Tom Jones and Josh Molloy picked up a try each to bring their side back into the contest.

Early in the second half Nathan Roebuck scored to level things up, before the weather turned and a brief blizzard appeared to disorientate Saddleworth, who went behind by six tries to four.

Molloy then shrugged off a number of tackles to complete a hat-trick and reduce the deficit to one, but it wasn’t to be.

The defensive effort was good on the day though, particularly in the shape of top tackler Kieran Elkin.

OLDHAM St Anne’s under-eights were in unstoppable form at Wigan St Jude’s, finishing the day eight tries to four the victors.

Ethan Chaippie, Thomas Barnes, Ben Ivell (two), Danny Fish (two) and Asa France (two) were the scorers.

The under-nines, though, couldn’t stave off defeat at Rylands, going down by four tries to two.

A superb try involving boy of the match Sam Hall was finished off by Rob Charles for Saints, after top tackler Cole Connelly had opened the scoring. Harrison Lewis took the most improved player award for his non-stop efforts.

JAMES Allott scored a pair of tries and kicked three conversions as Shaw Rhinos under-15s won 26-0 at Widnes St Marie’s.

Luke Bentley, Sam Bentley and Jonathan Pertoldi were the other try scorers in what was an outstanding team performance.

Special mention for their efforts goes to Ben Jackson, Joseph Chambers and man-of-the-match Luke Bentley.

The positive result for Shaw followed up a great fund-raising event held on Friday night, for which the club would like to thank everyone who attended.