Miners Round-Up
Leigh Miners stay third in the table this weekend after a last minute try by Scott O’Brien and a Jonny Youds conversion rescued a point for Miners after a disappointing performance away at Saddleworth Rangers saw them draw 30-30. The home side were in front after a minute when Miners turned the ball over from the kick off and Saddleworth took full advantage scoring on the right to give them a 6-0 lead. That lead was increased when Saddleworth went over for a second try after being the much better team in the opening quarter to increase their advantage to 12-0. Miners hit back when Darryl Appleby barged his way over from close range, Jonny Youds converting to bring the score to 12-6. Miners seemed to pick up a little after the try but with the game being a stop- start affair on the postage stamp pitch they were unable to draw level before the half time break.
Miners started the second half poorly kicking the ball out on the full from the kick off and that allowed the home side easy field position to score in their opening set of the second half to lead 18-6. Things got worse for Miners when Saddleworth scored their fourth try to open up an eighteen point gap to lead the game 24-6 and from the way Miners were playing it looked like Saddleworth would go on and win comfortably. Miners hit back on 55 minutes when Scott O’Brien’s grubber kick was snapped up by Jonny Youds who grounded under the sticks, Youds adding the extras from his try to bring the score to 24-12. As the game went into the final fifteen minutes Miners scored two tries in the space of five minutes to tie the game at 24-24, the first from hooker Tom Farrimond who darted over from dummy half to score at the side of the posts, that was followed by a try from winger Sean Pendlebury, Youds converting both tries to bring the scores level with ten minutes to go. Saddleworth looked like they had wrapped the game up when they scored with four minutes remaining, breaking from half way to score under the posts to lead 30-24, but they were denied an important victory when Miners scored with the final play of the game through Scott O’Brien who stepped his way through the defence to score under the posts, Youds converting to give the final score 30-30 and give Miners a point which they probably didn’t deserve after a poor performance.
MINERS TEAM = J. Youds, S. Pendlebury , L. Coleman, A. Thomason, M. Gray, M. Lewis, S. O’Brien, C. Connor, T. Farrimond, D. Kay, D. Jackson, S. Marsh, D. Jones, SUBS = T. Appleby, D. Appleby, K.Howells, L. Gittins
MOM = Tom Farrimond
The Alliance side lost 28-26 at home to Leyland Warriors despite tries for Mick Evans (two), Chris Barlow, Stephen Grundy and Scott Travis. Tom Bradbury kicked three goals. Pictures from this game are thanks to Alan Ball and more images can be found at
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