Points were hard to come by in Round Three of the Betfred Championship as six of the seven matches took place on Sunday afternoon, with an early kick-off between Workington and Featherstone Rovers and the other five games underway at three o´clock.
Unbeaten Barrow were at home to Newcastle with Widnes also looking for their third consecutive win on the road at Halifax. Batley entertained York, Dewsbury hosted Sheffield and Whitehaven made the long journey south to take on London.
The game which boasted the most points of the afternoon was the early kick off a Derwent Park where Bussey, Pickersgill and Gale gave Featherstone a 14-0 half time lead. Teare puled one back for Workington just after the restart before Jones got Rovers fourth of the afternoon. Fitzsimmons and Bussey swapped tries in the last ten minutes with Featherstone maintaining their great start to the season with a 26-10 win.
London and Whitehaven battled out a pointless first half and the only try of the game came on forty-five when Holliday went in with Bishop converting. The ´Haven stand-off added a last-minute penalty to seal an 8-0 win and make the long journey home more palatable.
Michael opened the scoring for York as early as the sixth minute and when Ellis added the conversion for 6-0 it was a terrific start. But then the points dried up until after the hour mark when Walshaw scored for Batley to get them back within two. Oakes added a second, unconverted, try for York on seventy-one to complete the scoring and a 10-4 win.
Barrow took twenty-six minutes to get their first try through Crellin and took a 6.0 lead into the break. Ritson added a second try just after the hour mark for 12-0 and Shaw a penalty on seventy-three. Boafo scored a late consolation for Newcastle in their 6-14 loss.
Dewsbury scrambled a narrow 12-10 win over the Sheffield Eagles but were only 6-0 ahead at half time thanks to an early Graham try. Johnson and Welham scored for the Eagles on sixty-four and sixty-eight for a 10-6 lead but with eight minutes remaining Ryder scored the winning try thanks to a Beharrell conversion making it 12-6.
It was a humdinger of a game at Halifax where the Widnes Vikings managed to maintain their perfect start to the season with a 9-8 win. Widnes scored in the first half through Doro, converted by Edge and an Edge penalty close to the interval for 8-0. A converted Saltonstall try on forty-eight and a Keyed penalty five minutes later levelled the scored but the game was won by a Smith drop goal with thirteen minutes left on the clock.
We will have a full match report on tomorrow night’s game between the Centurions and the Bulls soon after the final hooter.
