St Anne’s on verge of promotion glory

RUNNING FREE: Darren Fletcher of Oldham St Anne’s (with ball) in action against Castleford Lock Lane.

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AMATEUR RUGBY: OLDHAM St Anne’s held off on putting on a full-scale celebration following their 28-10 home win over Castleford Lock Lane which all-but secured promotion back up to National Conference League division one.

Coach Mick Cashin was delighted with the efforts of his men in comprehensively seeing off fellow hopefuls at Higginshaw Road thanks to a superb start to the game in which Saints ran in for 22 unanswered points.

With the season over for St Anne’s, it is a case of now waiting to see if Stanley Rangers can win both their remaining games, away to Lock Lane on Saturday and then at Crosfields a week later.

They will also need to overhaul a points differential currently 140 worse off than St Anne’s to leapfrog Cashin’s men — who would be promoted in third place anyway should two applicants be readmitted into the NCL for next season.

In any case, Cashin and the Saints players will wait until a week on Saturday to hopefully pop open the champagne.

“The lads trained well all week ahead of the game and applied themselves very well to their task,” said Cashin, who is bidding to send St Anne’s back up to division one at the first time of asking.

“We started the game well and bashed them about a bit in fairness. It was a good performance against a strong side.

“We are in a really good position now and it means they have to score a hell of a lot of points to overhaul us.

“As it stands we are taking it that two sides will be promoted automatically, but if it turns out to be three then all well and good.

“To bounce back up like we hopefully have done shows there is real character at the club.”

Lock Lane opened up the game by missing three penalty shots at goal but fell behind to Danny Kay’s try which came on the back of Dave Harris being held up short.

The ever-dangerous Martin Ryan then crossed, Kiel Lancashire converting, before Daniel Chrimes broke to send in Lee Forsythe on a 70-metre scoring run.

Lancashire converted and was teeing up again when Harris flew past three defenders, Craig Dunn’s try and Danny Rowse’s conversion making it 22-6 at half-time.

Scott Horner went over for a second for the Castleford side after the break but Lancashire’s penalty goal and Harris’s second of the game made the points safe for Saints.


SADDLEWORTH Rangers doubled up from their Standard Cup win over Higginshaw to hammer Castleford Panthers 50-4 a day later.

Showing no sings of fatigue, Keith Brennan’s men blew away their division one promotion rivals to again maintain the pressure at the top of the table.

It was a big effort from Rangers and Brennan praised his players.

“A lot of lads played 160 minutes in two days,” he said. “Ethan Langhorn, Michael Coates, Adam Kirwan and Josh Brown all managed it and Liam Coates also doubled up to play the full game against Castleford.

“It was a very good performance we produced.

“We have shown what we are capable of doing in patches throughout the season, but we managed it for a full game.”

Tom Kilgannon scored a hat-trick of tries for Saddleworth, who also touched down through Josh Brown, Adam Kirwan, Simon Parrish, Shaun Robinson and Danny Adams on the way to their half-century, Michael Coates kicking eight goals.


WATERHEAD inflicted an 11th straight defeat of Shaw Cross Sharks to win 20-10 on home soil in their penultimate home match of the season.

The visitors from Dewsbury came up against a Peach Road side keen to avoid finishing in the re-election places — and the two points picked up have now ensured that a bottom-two placing is no longer possible.

Jon Perks pulled on his boots again to lead the side around the park in style, charging home for a pair of tries and converting both while also adding a goal to a try from Matthew Harland for an 18-0 half-time lead.

Shaw Cross improved and registered tries through Tim Jones and John McGee, Zac Johnson adding a goal.

Perks’ fourth penalty of the afternoon sealed the game for Waterhead, who now bid to finish their season on a high away at second-bottom club Ovenden on Saturday.




SADDLEWORTH Rangers lost 12-7 to Thatto Heath in NCL division one last night (Wednesday) in controversial circumstances.

Having recovered from a 6-0 deficit to draw level at half-time through a Matt Bottom try, goaled by Michael Coates, Rangers went ahead when Coates kicked a drop-goal.

Thatto then scored a try which Saddleworth claim came on the seventh tackle, before the match referee chose to blow for full-time 12 minutes early due to supposed bad light.

“We weren’t happy with what happened to say the least,” said coach Keith Brennan. “But the effort of the lads was top-class.”