Leigh Miners Rangers 18 Hull Dockers 4
Miners Rangers maintained second place with this hard-fought win over bottom side Hull Dockers. In atrocious conditions which made the going treacherous underfoot and transformed the ball into a bar of soap both sides slugged it out grimly as their differing agendas became a common lottery of knock-ons and slippages. However that arguably resulted in a more gripping contest for the hardy spectators as the result remained in doubt until the closing stages.
Miners handed debuts to prop Elliott Liku and under-18s Lewis Grimes with another youth teamer Jake Lloyd on the opposite wing whilst Dockers had their own young hopefuls in tireless front rower Bobby Smith and hooker Ben Wardell replacing the suspended Nathan Powley. With old warhorse Jon Eccles revelling in the miry conditions Dockers opened brightly, belying their league position as they pounded the Miners’ line without reward thanks to the tenacious defence led by Mark Nicholson and with a tremendous trysaving tackle by Sam Peet to bundle Dave Palmer into touch inches from the line. It was Miners who made the breakthrough though just after the quarter hour as Matty Pendlebury placed a kick in-goal and Scott O’Brien darted in to touch down beside the posts, Jonny Youds goaling. Within four minutes the home side had doubled their lead as Martin Gray waltzed his way through from twenty metres out for what proved his final action of the game as he sustained an ankle injury in the process. Despite that setback Miners initially appeared to have broken Dockers’ resolve but the visitors rallied strongly and by half time were right back in the game as they staged a carbon copy of Miners’ opening try, Carl Thompson with the kick into the in goal and Daniel Suddaby sliding through to touch down.
Whilst the rain gradually relented in the second half the pitch remained thoroughly saturated and handling conditions continued to suffer accordingly. Both sides had chances to score, Liku denied a debut try which his efforts – and his bravery in sliding head-first into the fence as he touched down – merited after a knock-on was detected in the build up, whilst Dockers had an even bigger chance go begging as some fine handling opened the Miners line only for the ball to go to ground with the whitewash gaping. The tension was only diffused six minutes from time when Miners probed the Dockers’ line and worked the ball left for Nicholson, an outstanding performer for Miners, to stride through and score with Youds adding his third goal to round proceedings off.
