Amateur rugby league roundup

DESPITE going toe-to-toe with Dudley Hill for most of the game, Oldham St Anne’s eventually fell to a 30-24 home defeat which keeps them at the wrong end of the National Conference League division one table.

Chris Carter opened the scoring for Saints, Kiel Lancashire converting, but the visitors hit back with tries from Lewis Evans, Danny Herbert and Neil Wall, with Wall converting twice to give his side a 16-6 advantage.

On the half-hour, Saints’ man-of-the-match Danny Kay touched down, Lancashire adding the extras, to leave the home team four points adrift.

Just before the break, though, Craig Tyman added another Dudley Hill try.

In an entertaining second half, Saints came back into it when Ben Mayers scored, Lancashire converting, to reduce the gap to two points.

Dudley Hill responded with a Ryan Dickinson try, converted by Wall, but Rick Badby showed his class to score in the 70th minute and Lancashire — who had a fine game with some devastating field kicking — converted to put Saints well in contention at 24—26.

The last five minutes saw Saints camped out on the Dudley line, but Hill then slowly made their way upfield and put the game to bed with a Paul Gleadhill try in the closing seconds.

It was better news for Saddleworth Rangers in division one, as they made it two wins from two – 36-6 at Ince Rose Bridge.

Tries from Danny Attersall and Michael Coates put Rangers ahead and after David Hewitt and Jimmy Rogers had added two more shortly after the break, Tom Kinsella pulled one back for the home team, David Bullough converting.

But further tries from Gareth Davies and a pair from Ben Walters, plus four goals from Michael Coates, made the game safe.

In division two, Waterhead suffered another agonising defeat, this time 20-18 at Eccles and Salford Juniors.

Mick Slicker’s side were 14–6 up at half-time. Tries from Paddy Slicker and Paul Bennett, both converted by Terry Fitzgerald who also added a penalty, were answered by a Dave Critchley try and Neil Farrow goal just before the break.

Alan Hargreaves went in at the corner for Eccles before Fitzgerald’s goal kept Waterhead’s noses in front at 16-10.

Critchley was in on the action again before another Fitzgerald penalty seemed to have given the Peach Road side the points — only for a late Mike Davies try, crucially converted by Paul Morgan, to leave a young Waterhead side without anything to show for their efforts.