Round Twelve of the 2022 Betfred Championship was held over three days from Saturday to Monday with Featherstone playing Whitehaven, and Bradford at home to Newcastle, on Saturday early evening.
Sunday afternoon had four games which comprised York against Halifax, Batley against an embattled London, Leigh against Workington and Dewsbury at home to Barrow. The remaining fixture will be played on Monday night in front of the Premier Sports cameras as Sheffield Eagles face the Widnes Vikings.
Featherstone Rovers emphasised their claim for promotion with a 78-0 demolition of Whitehaven as they continued their unbeaten start to the season. Lockwood, Hellewell, Hall and Leilua all scored in the opening quarter of an hours for a 22-0 lead with Jacks, Smith, Sene-Lefao and Briscoe all adding further tries before the interval. After the break it was still all one-way traffic as Sene-Lefao completed a hat-trick, as did Jones and Moors added the fourteenth try for good measure, hall kicking eleven conversions.
The Bradford Bulls sprinted into a 24-0 half time lead thanks to Gill (2), Doyle and Wallace all scoring tries converted by Patton. Patton added a try if his own for 30-0 before a Newcastle rally which saw them score three unanswered tries through Peachey and Johnson (2). Evans completed Bradford´s scoring on seventy-four before a final try from Johnson, scoring a hat-trick in their 20-36 defeat.
Leigh Centurions put on a show in front of the Our League cameras to defeat Workington by 58-0. Ferguson (3), Chamberlain, Inu, O´Donnell and Macdonald all scored first half tries for a 30-6 interval lead, Inu only managing a single conversion of those seven tries. The only points of the game for Workington came just before the interval through Barnes. The second half was also one-way with MacDonald, Chamberlain, Inu, and O´Donnell completing their braces, Ferguson getting his fourth and Mellor picking up the thirteen try with a minute left on the clock.
Barrow Raiders took a ten point lead away at Dewsbury Rams thanks to Sammut and Stack before Ryder got one back for the Rams before Cresswell scored the Raiders third for 16-6 at the interval. Schofield and Ryder scored after the restart to give the Rams an 18-16 lead but Stack picked up his second with twelve minutes remaining for a 22-18 win.
The London Broncos stunned Batley by going ahead through Bienek and building on their lead with a try from Leyland to be 12-0 up at the break. But the second half was all one way in the other direction with White, Gilmore, Brown, Hooley and Reilly scoring twenty-eight unanswered second half points for a 28-12 win.
Halifax came from behind, twice, with two men in the sin-bin to beat York City Knights, full report here.
We will bring you a match report soon after the final hooter tomorrow night in the game between Sheffield and Widnes.
