Pilkington Recs 10 Haydock 24

RECS' old boy Mark Forber came back to haunt his former team-mates as the Yickers condemned the City Road men to their third successive home defeat.

The scrum-half's 16-point contribution, which included two tries in quick succession as the game was tightly poised in the second half, proved crucial in what was a cracking derby.

For Recs it was another hard luck story, as they were left to rue the referee's decision to disallow a try in each half.

The first ruled out score came with Recs trailing 2-0 following a Forber penalty goal. Stand-off Mark Ashton touched down a grubber kick on the left flank only to see it chalked off by the referee.

From the next set of tackles Haydock wingman Mike Saunders broke clear and floated a pass to centre Mark Shaw who scored a try that Forber converted.

Both packs slogged away in the mud and there were few openings. Lively hooker Andy Fairhurst and scrum-half Ste Rawsthorne threatened for Recs, but it took a piece of opportunism by Ashton, who robbed the ball one-on-one in the tackle before scoring, to get them back in the game.

From there, Recs began to get on top and a 70-metre interception try by centre Andy Traverse, converted by Fairhurst, gave them a 10-8 lead in the second half.

With about 20 minutes left there was more controversy as Recs' Darren Haigh crossed on the right flank but was adjudged to have fumbled the ball over the line.

The decision seemed to affect Recs whose tiring defence began to look suspect to the relentless charges of loose-forward Wayne Bloor.

Centre Ian Speed was held up over the line, and then as Haydock offloaded out of several tackles Forber touched down. The scrum-half pulled an easy conversion wide but moments later was on hand to effectively destroy Recs' chances with another try coming after a darting run from close range.

Briefly the home side rallied, but when another ball was dropped with the line in sight, their heads sank.

Forber added another penalty before the scoring was rounded off with a second try from Shaw following a swift handling movement.

Recs' man of the match awards went to veteran prop Ian Connolly and second-row Graham Cranney, while Ste Rawsthorne was again impressive. Best for Haydock were Speed, Forber, Ian Marsh, Shaw, and Craig Haughey.

Widnes Tigers 10 Pilks Recs A 28

THIS was a superb all round team performance from Pilks as they progressed to the last eight of the NWCL Bowl competition.

Pilks started slowly and found themselves 10-nil down in the first half-hour. The introduction of big-hitting Dave Houghton proved a turning point as he gave the visitors lift they were looking for.

After the break, Pilks started to play some good rugby with half-backs Nick Ashall and Andy Parr attacking the Tigers line and the hard-running forwards giving them options.

Dave Archer crossed for two tries, Gaz Friar grabbed one and John Ledger 'danced' past a quartet of defenders to score. Eddie Bloor then combined well with Gary Chadwick to finish off the scoring, with Andy Parr kicking four goals.

Pilks were well served by John Ledger, James Bolton, Gaz Friar, Lee Hurst and Barry Pope.