Saints repel Panthers fightback

RUGBY: OLDHAM St Anne’s held off a strong second-half comeback — and the loss of Connor Karren to a dislocated shoulder — to turn in a 36-24 win over Castleford Panthers, maintaining an unbeaten home run in the National Conference Interim League.

Johnny Carter gave the visitors an early lead with a penalty, before Karren scored and injured himself in the process.

Kiel Lancashire converted and did the same to a Terry Whalley try, before Panthers hooker Scott Holder weaved over for a Carter-goaled effort which brought the deficit down to four by half-time.

Three quick-fire Saints tries from Michael Cadd, David Harris and Whalley, plus a pair of Lancashire goals, seemingly made the game safe at 26-8.

But Panthers responded in kind through Nathan Campsill, Craig Smith and Aaron Phelps, with Carter kicking two goals.

With the game in the balance, man-of-the-match Kevin McCormack crossed under the posts and Michael Arrowsmith also touched down, Lancashire adding another two points for a fourth Group ‘E’ victory in five games played.




WATERHEAD hammered Normanton Knights 60-10 to continue their positive campaign in Group ‘E’.



Carl Sneyd crossed for a hat-trick of tries and also landed 10 goals for a personal haul of 32 points — more than half the team’s overall total.

Matty Harland, Mick Diveney and Steven Kiss also scored tries for the home team before Chris Woolford responded, James Clarkson adding the goal.

But Kieran Grennan and Sneyd also ran home tries and with the latter impeccable with the boot, Waterhead led 36-6 at the break.

Sneyd added two more tries and four more goals in the second half, with the home team also registering scores through Ash Wildman and Darren Nixon (two).

Johnny Hodgson was the sole Knights scorer in the second period.




SADDLEWORTH Rangers suffered another defeat in Group ‘C’, going down 36-6 at home to Stanningley.



The Greenfield side have now lost four of their five matches, with one left to play at Rochdale Mayfield on Saturday.

Tom Sharp and Rob Bussey scored first-half tries for the visitors, Ash Kearsley converting both.

Niall Murphy, Adam Ben and Sam Savage (two) added second-half scores, with Kearsley (three) and Murphy converting.

Rangers managed one try, scored by Ethan Langhorn and goaled by Jack Bradbury.