LEIGH East travelled to Woolston on Friday night but found the hosts in good form and went down 40-16.

The visitors were temporarily reduced to twelve men after two minutes when returning Zac Nicholls was sin-binned in the third minute for a late challenge on home half-back Ben Dixon.

The hosts immediately took advantage to run in two tries in the opening ten minutes through Alex Smith and Dixon, the second direct from a tap following a 40/20. Dixon kicked both goals but East came back and scored on the right through James Noon to make it 12-4.

Harry Files then scored a third try for the hosts with Dixon making it 18-4 before a smart back-line play brought a second try for Noon.

This time Adam Holland struck the difficult conversion and the game was back in the balance at 18-10.

Crucially for Woolston, they scored right on half-time through Nick Braide and centre Lewis Hoarty followed him to the line early in the second half.

A high kick from Jordan Hellam was spilled by the Woolston defence which allowed Noon his hat-trick and Holland converted to make it 30-16 and East pushed hard for another score, twice seeing efforts disallowed.

Woolston rode their luck to respond on the hour through Will Maudsley and as the light faded, so did Easts chances with the hosts wrapping things up at the end as Dixon galloped away on a support run to the sticks in the last minute before adding his sixth goal to round off a twenty point contribution and a 40-16 win for the hosts.

LEIGH Miners Rangers battled with spirit but for the second time this season couldn’t find a way through title-chasing Wath Brow’s defence as the Hornets closed out victory at a rain-swept Twist Lane.

With both defences working hard it was the extra cutting edge quality of the Cumbrians, allied to an outstanding kicking game from maestro Dean Rooney, which proved the significant difference although Miners will take pride from the effort and character shown despite the defeat.

The home side opened strongly and edged the opening quarter but without managing to find a way through the Brow defence and when the pendulum shifted the Hornets demonstrated just why you have to take your chances when you are on top, building pressure on the line and on the last tackle a short angled drive from Karl Dixon taking him through the markers and over the whitewash next to the posts. Fran King surprisingly missed that conversion but made amends shortly afterwards with a classy dummy to cut through on the right flank and then showed a clean pair of heels as he broke from a scrum just inside his own half and scorched clear for another six pointer and 14-0 at the interval.

As the rain showed no signs of relenting the third quarter was attritional and the only addition to the score was a King penalty before Brow scored their fourth and final try with Jamie Devine cutting through on the left. Miners were well-served by Joe Connor and Louis Brogan whilst Lee Hudson put in his trademark tireless stint at hooker but Brow embellished the win with two Rooney drop goals to ice the victory cake.

The Alliance team went down to an agonising late defeat to St Pats in a cup tie, 17-16.

This weekend the first team travel to Lock Lane whilst the Alliance host Pilkingtons, 2.30pm KO on Saturday at Twist Lane.