Co-operative Championship 1 Round-up

Correspondent

South Wales Scorpions recorded their first victory of the Co-operative Championship One season following an impressive 60-20 victory over Gateshead Thunder.

The Scorpions scored seven tries in the first half to go into the break with a comfortable lead before scoring a further four tries in the second half.

Lewis Reece claimed a personal haul of 24 points from two tries and eight goals, while there were also try doubles for Christiaan Roets, Curtis Cunningham and Andrew Gay.

Doncaster RLFC continued their impressive start to their Championship One campaign with a 26-16 win over Workington Town.

Shaun Leaf, Kyle Keswik and Craig Fawcett all crossed for the Dons to give them a 16-0 half time lead with Leaf scoring a second after the break. Ryan Steen also scored to give Doncaster their third straight victory.

Workington got their first points on the board early in the second half through John Patrick, with Neil Frazer and Jack Pedley also touching down for Town but the damage had already been done.

Ian Mort helped himself to 26 points as Swinton Lions made it three wins out of three in the Co-operative Championship One with a comprehensive 68-24 defeat of Oldham Roughyeds.

Swinton ran in 12 tries with Mort claiming two for himself and adding another 18 points with the boot. Gavin Dodd and Karl Ashall also managed to cross the whitewash on two occasions for the Lions.

Oldham started the game brightly, taking a 12-0 lead in the opening ten minutes after tries from Ben Wood and Micky Diveny but it proved to be as good as it got for the Roughyeds as Swinton opened their scoring through Tommy Gallagher on the 24 minute mark and scored nine on the trot without response.

Jason Boults got on the score sheet twice in the second half for Oldham but it was too little, too late with Mort’s last minute try putting the icing on the cake.

Rochdale Hornets earned their first victory of the Co-operative Championship One seasonafter a 40-20 triumph over London Skolars.

Andrew Saywell scored a brace of tries for the Hornets while Paul Crook notched up 14 points for himself with a try and five goals. Debutant Danny Ekis rounded off the scoring for Rochdale in 77th minute to inflict a third straight defeat on the Skolars who are still searching for a first win of the season.

After starting the season on -9 points due to going into administration, Whitehaven RL returned to 0 league points following their third consecutive victory in The Co-operative Championship One with a 24-10 victory over Keighley Cougars.

The Cumbrians did all the damage in the first half, with Craig Calvert, Loz Hamzat, Derry Elibeck and David Ford all crossing the line to give Haven a comfortable 22-0 lead.

Keighley got the better of the second half with tries from Dan Belcher and Gavin Duffy getting them off the mark while Whitehaven only managed to add a penalty through Lewis Palfray but the Cougars couldn’t manage to claw their way back into contention.

Results

South Wales Scorpions 60 – Gateshead Thunder 20
Doncaster RLFC 26 – Workington Town 16
Oldham Roughyeds 24 – Swinton Lions 68
Rochdale Hornets 40 – London Skolars 20
Whitehaven RLFC 24  – Keighley Cougars 10