Championship Shield Round Six Review
Batley Bulldogs saved their best until last as they blew away Hunslet Hawks 60-12 at the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium on Sunday to officially seal their Championship status for next season.
Only a 140-point defeat would have condemned them to League One, but an impressive win was never in doubt as they ran in 11 tries to consign Hunslet to the third tier in 2016.
Playing up Mount Pleasant’s slope, tries from Scott Leatherbarrow, Cain Southernwood, Shaun Ainscough and Alex Brown handed John Kear’s men a 20-0 interval lead, and they cut loose in the second period, running in a further seven tries to put the result beyond doubt.
Wayne Reittie kicked off the scoring in the second half before Squires notched his second and Adam Gledhill bundled over for his first try of the season.
Jimmy Watson responded but Batley were soon back on top, Anthony Nicholson and Ainscough again going in ahead of Watson’s second score.
Brown then sealed his own double before James Craven rounded off a stellar day for the Bulldogs in the closing minutes.
Elsewhere, Dewsbury Rams and Featherstone Rovers came out on top as the Championship Shield’s top four came together ahead of next weekend’s semi-finals.
In-form Workington Town travelled to Dewsbury but were left to reflect on a dominant first half performance from the Rams as they built up a 20-0 advantage at the break following tries from Aaron Brown, Ryan Fieldhouse, Dalton Grant and Etu Uaisele.
After Perry Whiteley and Brown traded early tries, Town rattled back into the game, Elliot Miller and livewire Jarrod Sammut going over to reduce the gap to just 12 points.
But Dewsbury held on and capped the win as Tom Hemingway notched a late drop goal to finally take the wind from the Cumbrians’ sails.
Meanwhile, Rovers came out on top in their clash with fellow semi-finalists London Broncos, taking the spoils courtesy of a 20-10 triumph at the BigFellas Stadium.
London took a 4-0 advantage into half time following Ben Hellewell’s early effort, but Halifax-bound Will Sharp continued his fine form of late, going over on 51 minutes before Ben Blackmore went in to kick off a devastating eight-minute spell which saw Will Milner and Jack Coventry also notch four-pointers to put the hosts 20-4 ahead before Iliess Macani’s late consolation.
Finally, on Saturday, Whitehaven brought their season to a close in style, running out 52-22 winners against Doncaster.
Dion Aiye and Craig Calvert led the way with two tries apiece as ‘Haven built up an indomitable 28-4 lead at the break.
James Newton, Tyla Hepi, Ed Chamberlain, Jessie-Jose Parker and Sam Books also got amongst the tries, as efforts from Sam Doherty, Danny Cowling, Brad Foster and Tom Carr proved to be little more than consolations at the end of a miserable year for the Dons.