Harris hat-trick in vain

North-West Counties League

DESPITE a hat-trick of tries from David Harris, Oldham St Anne’s ‘A’ are still searching for their first win of the season in division one of the North-West Counties League.

Saints went down 38-26 at home to Bold Miners, who went ahead in the second minute with a try under the posts.

The hosts’ response was immediate as Steve McHugh found space to put Harris in for his first score, which David Lamb converted.

Miners hit back with two converted tries before Harris went in again — Lamb adding the two points — to cut the deficit to 16-12 at the interval.

Another try, which was again converted, extended the visitors lead, only for Saints to reduce the arrears with a Luke Wallace score and a Lamb conversion.

Only four points separated the two teams at this stage, but Miners took a firm grip on the game with two more converted tries.

Saints would not lie down and Harris completed his hat-trick to give them a glimmer of hope, only for Miners to put the game beyond doubt with another six-pointer.

The home side did have the last say as Johnny Kelly touched down for a try.

Saddleworth Rangers ‘A’ got their division three campaign under way with a 36–18 defeat at second-placed Dalton of Barrow.

A poor first-half performance, the highlight of which was a quick-thinking try from Tom Dransfield, goaled by Ryan Collins, saw Rangers trail 28-6 at the break.

The visitors were much-improved in the second period and, with converted tries from Danny Adams and Collins — the latter bewildered his opponents with three dummies as he raced in from 50 yards — they could at least take a positive from the game.

Missing four players through injury, Higginshaw matched Eccles and Salford for commitment from start to finish in a 14-4 defeat.

Higgy’s defence was spot on, snuffing out a number of attacks, while they unsettled their opponents with some big hits.

The division four game was nip and tuck for the first 20 minutes with Mark Ward and Ryan O’Donnell, back after a spell at St Anne’s, going close.

Higgy’s backline finally gave way in the 22nd minute, but a try from Gareth Franklin — the centre picked up a short ball at pace before carrying several defenders over the line — levelled things up at the break.

Eccles recorded a converted try against the run of play 15 minutes into the second half — a kick from defence was charged down — but Higgy were still dangerous.

They should have had a second try, but Michael Jewitt fumbled the ball as he went over the line, before Eccles extended their lead with 10 minutes to go.

Waterhead remain bottom of the table after an 18-0 defeat at Leyland Warriors, although it is still early days.

Rochdale Cobras made it two wins out of two in division six with a 48-26 defeat of Leigh East ‘A’.

They recorded nine tries — the pick of which were from centres Butterworth and Hughes who raced in from 60 metres — while Hutchins kicked four out of six goals and Butterworth two out of two.

Leading 28-12 at the break, Cobras never let up in the second half to run out impressive winners.

Other try-scorers were Walsh (two) Corcoran (two), Hutchins, Charles, and Maxi.

THERE are no North-West Counties League fixtures on Saturday because of the Super League Grand Final.