Leigh Centurions 62 Swinton Lions 6 by Mike Hulme: NEIL Turley is back in business.

Leigh's points machine equalled a club record of 38 points as the Centurions virtually booked their place in the Arriva Trains National Cup quarter-finals.

Turley, in only his third game back after a serious spinal injury, demolished the Lions almost single-handedly with Leigh posting their biggest win in the competition so far.

The free-scoring full-back ended with five tries and nine goals to equal John Woods' record of 38 points in a match.

Leigh's return to something approaching their best form delighted coach Paul Terzis, who said: "Neil's a real talent and he'll continue to have days like this. He has the ability to take the step up to the next level."

Sean Richardson, Damian Munro, Dave Bradbury, Paul Rowley and Adam Bristow also scored.

Although Leigh scored 11 tries, it was their defensive effort that brought most satisfaction for Terzis. Leigh have leaked tries alarmingly in recent weeks but yesterday restricted the Lions to just one touchdown - that coming from an individual Leigh error.

With half-backs Pat Weisner and John Duffy in commanding form, it was always going to be a long afternoon for the Lions who were in their third game in eight days.

The writing was on the wall as Leigh opened up with three tries in the first 19 minutes; Turley touching down twice after clever play by Duffy on each occasion, and skipper Adam Bristow stamped his class on the game with the first of his two for a 14-0 lead.

Leigh were far from perfect in the opening 40 minutes, handling badly at times but still well on top despite a breakaway try from Phil Hassan, goaled by Chris Hough, cutting the lead to 14-6. But two minutes from the break Dave Bradbury's brute strength took him under the posts and another Turley goal gave Leigh a 20-6 interval lead.

The second half was all one-way traffic as Leigh's attacking plays were too much for the leg-weary Lions.

Turley completed his hat-trick in the 47th minute and before the third quarter was up, Leigh had added more tries from Paul Rowley and Bristow.

With the Lions falling apart at the seams Leigh ran in tries for fun in the last 20 minutes. Turley grabbed the last two and their were others from Sean Richardson and Damian Munro.