THE Super League arrived at Deepdale for the second time in seven days.

And, after the success of the pre-season challenge against Wigan, Lancashire Lynx drew a crowd of more than 700 to their Preston home for the visit of London Broncos in the Silk Cut Challenge Cup.

Both coaches had declared the match to be "a toughie", but Kevin Tamati's task was made even harder by a number of injuries to key players.

But, for a few brief minutes, Lynx had the game by the scruff of the neck, Andy Ruane's drop goal giving them a shock lead.

In the end, of course, Broncos took it clearly as they rampaged to a decisive 48-5 victory.

Lynx's early excitement was short-lived. Within four minutes Broncos had their first point on the board through Scott Roskell.

From then on they never looked back and had amassed 28 points by half-time.

The Lynx defence sometimes looked shaky and Terry Matterson made light work of eluding their tackles, crossing the line after seven minutes.

Tries from Greg Barwick, Roskell and Paul Smith came in the first half-hour, but then Lynx again found their feet.

Their tackling improved and they managed to threaten the Broncos' defence.

On a last tackle Andy Ruane's kick was picked up, then fumbled by London; Lynx held out for the full set of tackles and kept the ball alive.

Although this move came to nothing, it seemed to inspire the Preston battlers, and, just before the break, Steve Gee struggled over the line with the London defence still clinging onto him.

Lynx, defiant in defence, then held out well until MoM Josh White dived over the line under the posts. Then Roskell completed his hat-trick.

In the final 10 minutes Lynx made some positive moves, Neil Molyneux and try-scorer Gee both playing an integral part in these attacks.

The dying minutes saw Russell Bawden round off the scoring with a fine try.

Down but not disheartened. That's the Lynx.

LYNX: Parsley; Fairhurst, Finney, Gee, McLaughlin; Ruane, Emery; Gleave, Westwood, Norton, Francis, Molyneux, Walsh. Subs: Smith, Crook, Barr, Briscoe.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.