WESTHOUGHTON Lions suffered a blip in their fine start to the North West Men's League Division Four campaign with a 20-16 away defeat to fifth-placed Langworthy Reds.

The third -placed Lions went 4-0 behind before taking a 6-4 lead when Ryan Berry went over after good work by Liam Clarke gave the ball to Sam Pennington and converted his own try.

Doug Owen scooted from dummy half and found Nicky Bullough who threw a no-look pass for Jack Beck to touch down in the corner to make it 10-4.

The home side scored a try straight after the break but a couple of minutes later the Lions extended their lead with a try by Pennington.

He and Ben Sheehan had to leave the field injured after a clash of heads and with the Lions a mass of injuries the Reds took advantage running in three more tries to win.

The Lions under-12s put in a solid performance at The Den in a 38-38 draw with Bank Quay Bulls.

After going 12-0 down early on the Lions hit back when Josh Thompson threw a perfectly-weighted pass to Ben Grindley-Roberts who stepped his way over the line. Cooper Bainbridge added the extras.

The scores were level soon after when George Parr made some great yards that put the Lions in perfect field position for hooker Zak Taylor to go over for his 500th point for the Lions. Bainbridge again added the extras.

The two teams exchanged tries, the visitors first, converting theirs, followed by Ben Sixsmith for Westhoughton to make it 18-16 to Bank Quay at the break.

A Taylor converted try put the Lions ahead for the first time but two unconverted tries for the Bulls put them 26-22 ahead.

Chris Sharrock put in one of his best performances in a Lions shirt and he found an offload to Sam Dixon who fed it to Josh Thompson to dive over with Grindley-Roberts adding the extras to swing the pendulum back Westhoughton's way at 28-26.

Man-of-the-match Grindley-Roberts then ran hard and cut through a mass of defenders to score and Bainbridge’s conversion made it 34-26.

But the Bulls would not lie down and reduced the deficit to 34-32 before Ali Malik scored the Lions' final try and the Bulls replied with a converted try to ensure a thrilling game ended honours even.

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LITTLE Hulton narrowly lost 32-20 at top-of-the-league Woolston Rovers A.

The Reds, who are fourth in North West League Division Four, were out of sorts in the first half with Woolston soaking up all the pressure Little Hulton could muster then hitting back with speedy breaks.

Little Hulton continued to shoot themselves in the foot, not taking chances and turning the ball over frequently.

This was the story of the first half and it was only when the Warrington side built up a 20-point lead with the half coming to an end that the Reds finally got themselves on the score sheet.

Mike Bolton burst the Warrington sides defence to send an offload out to James Mason who dived over in the corner.

Wes Winder converted from the touchline to make the half-time score 20-6.

The Reds then clicked into gear and, after pounding on the Woolston door, Lee Foster dived over and Winder again added the extras.

Wave after wave of Little Hulton attacks were repelled and another counter punch by the league leaders resulted in them extended the lead back to 14.

Connor Shirwin reduced it to eight with a powerfull run and try which was converted by Winder, and a Chris Gaffe try put Little Hulton just 26-24 behind.

Yet another counter punch stunned Little Hulton again. But the 32-24 scoreline became 32-20 just before the final whistle when, with the home spectators pleading with the referee to blow, Jack Schofield got his just reward for a strong performance when he went under the sticks and Winder maintained his 100 per cent conversion rate.

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BOLTON Mets remain bottom with no points after losing 50-10 at second-placed Saddleworth Rangers A in the North West Men's League Division Five

A strong start by Bolton reaped early rewards when winger Dan Johnson received the ball from captain Mark Dorning before beating three Saddleworth Rangers A players and scoring his first try for the club.

Dorning converted to put Mets 6-0 ahead.

A much-improved performance on recent games continued for 30 minutes as Bolton caused Rangers problems.

Hard driving by props Jason Nuttall and Neil Walsh made inroads into the opposition half before half backs Dorning and Martin Galland turned on the style.

Saddleworth levelled the scores midway through the half and made the score 18-6 at the break.

A spell of three tries for the experienced home team put them 34-6 ahead before, despite a sin-binning for loose forward Josh Bourne, Bolton regained some control and started to create chances again.

Full-back Joe Harte made some good yards, as did wingers Gareth Shaw and Martyn Mercer, before Galland worked closely with Paul Leigh down the left.

With the extra man advantage, Saddleworth only managed to cross the line on one more occasion – and against the run of play – before Bourne returned from the bin.

Three further tries sandwiched either side of a second Mets try by Mets' man-of-the-match Ryan Terry completed the scoring.