St Anne’s suffer in pitched battle

RUGBY:

TWO all-in brawls, FIVE red cards... and no points for Oldham St Anne’s, who lost 34-18 to Elland.

That was the tale of the tape in the battle of Higginshaw Road, as an encounter Saints seemingly had under control ended with them reduced to 10 men and reeling.

The Best twins, Jason and David, were both dismissed with Elland prop Caycie Pearson, with unhappy rumblings in the home camp about the visiting forward’s alleged use of an elbow.

Saints forward Chris Carter was also shown a red card, along with Elland’s Ben Wood.

“There were five off, but probably only one was justified,” said St Anne’s coach Chris Deakin, who expressed his doubts over inexperienced officials being thrown in at the deep end.

St Anne’s started the game quickly and ran two very smart tries through Chris Bell and Oliver Bryan, before a gift was handed to Elland’s Phil Taylor with Pearson converting and adding a penalty to square it up at 8-8.

Saints’ man-of-the-match Mick Fogerty then threw out a long pass for Carter to race in, before the first flashpoint saw Jason Best and Pearson both forcefully retired.

Tom Harnett scooted over for a try and Taylor’s goal then gave Elland a slender 14-12 lead at the break.

Jack Fairbank touched down for a Taylor-converted score to increase that advantage.

And with the next scrap resulting in red cards for David Best and Carter for St Anne’s and Elland’s Wood, the extra-man advantage the visitors enjoyed was made to pay.

Three further tries followed for Taylor, Oliver Fairbank and David Montgomery, Taylor kicking one more goal.

John Fox crossed for a last-minute consolation, converted by Kiel Lancashire, as Saints signed off for two weeks; their next game is away at Leigh East on Saturday, June 29.



A LATE rally from Saddleworth Rangers helped in a vital 38-28 home victory over Stanley Rangers in Division One of the National Conference League.

With 15 minutes left, Rangers were looking at a ninth defeat in 11 matches, 28-18 down.

But tries by Chris Yarwood, Eric Johnson and Josh Bradbury pushed them into the lead, and seven-goal Michael Coates played a big role in establishing the destination of the two points on offer.



WATERHEAD suffered a comprehensive 40-18 defeat by near-rivals Rochdale Mayfield.

Mayfield built a commanding 16-0 lead in the first dozen minutes.

Matty Moores scored for the home team before half-time, with Waterhead responding through tries from Jake Maher and Fraser Coley to trail 22-10 at the interval.

Lewis Sheridan added brace of tries to his six-goal total and Simon Moore also crossed,

with Mick Diveney – who also kicked a goal – and Matt Brennan also scoring for Andy Sands’ beaten side