National Leagues Round Up

Correspondent

Three tries in the last 7 minutes rescued Castleford's 100% record, as Leigh gave them an almighty scare at Hilton Park. Leading at the break, Leigh kicked on in the second half and with 10 minutes left, held a 24-16 advantage. But tries from Peter Lupton, Ryan McGoldrick and Kirk Dixon saw Cas home, and helped them retain top spot in the division.

Another team with a 100% record before this weekend were Whitehaven, and unlike Castleford, they were unable to fight off a spirited opponent, surprisingly falling to a 26-16 defeat away at Doncaster. Hoping to draw a big crowd in the midst of the trouble surrounding the club, the Lakers only managed to attract 831 fans, but they saw a tremendous win, which propels their team up to 4th in the table.

Widnes made it 5 wins from 5 with an ominous display against Batley. Batley had the audacity to take an early lead, holding an 8-6 advantage early on, but it proved just a warm up for the Vikings, who scored 11 tries to record another thrashing in their pursuit of Super League. Mick Nanyn converted all 11 tries, as well as scoring one of his own, to continue his points scoring form.

Elsewhere, Rochdale finally got off the mark with their first win of the season – defeating Dewsbury Rams 36-24, whilst impressive Halifax saw off Sheffield Eagles with ease, racking up a 46-8 win.

On Friday night, in front of 3,441 fans, Oldham spoiled the Celtic party as they secured a shock 34-26 win to end the Crusaders' perfect start to the season. In an entertaining match played in front of a crowd boosted by Super League fans down south to watch the Millennium Magic weekend, Oldham were able to rack up 28 unanswered points in the final half an hour to complete a superb comeback from 26-6 down in front of the SKY cameras.

It leaves Barrow Raiders as the only team in the second division with a 100% record – they beat Hunslet 32-4. Featherstone continued their intimidating run, defeating London Skolars by a mammoth 62 points to 6, racking up 11 tries.

In the other games, York City Knights poor start to the season continued with Workington defeating the relegated side 31-8 in front of a 1,151 crowd in Cumbria. And Keighley Cougars got their season up and running with a 30-10 win over struggling Blackpool Panthers.

In Monday night's game, Swinton put some bad performances behind them with a 58-12 win over Gateshead Thunder, with former Widnes centre Darren Woods grabbing a hat trick of tries.