Leigh Miners Rangers 23

Saddleworth Rangers 4 LEIGH Miners Rangers grabbed another two precious league points with an ultimately emphatic victory over lowly Saddleworth Rangers on Tuesday night.

Heavy rain in the preceding week, continuing throughout the first half of this game, turned the match into something of an arm-wrestle.

For 30 minutes Saddleworth ran hard and aggressively but their efforts were unrewarded and they faded in the second half.

But the Miners should take a lot of credit for keeping their tryline unbroken in difficult conditions and ultimately two late tries saw them extend their winning run to four matches.

They opened the scoring after a mere two minutes, Roy Stott's wild pass knocked on by a Saddleworth player and into the path of Mark Hudspith who sauntered in for a try he converted himself.

But they early foray was effectively Miners' only attack of the first half as Saddleworth rallied with big young forwards Ward Jones and Jim Rogers driving hard and the experienced Sean Whitehead kicking to good effect. It was Whitehead who scored Saddleworth's only points, two penalties that left the half time score 6-4.

Just five minutes after the restart the Miners awoke from the torpor for the try that killed the game. Hudspith powered to the line and threw the ball out for substitute Steve Cawley to slip over with only his second touch.

As conditions deteriorated both sides struggled with their handling and when Mark Sarsfield popped over a casual field goal to move the Miners two scores clear, Saddleworth heads dropped. Perhaps it summed up their evening when Miners' final two tries stemmed directly from Saddleworth attacks.

First Steve Clarke pounced on a loose play the ball to scorch the length of the pitch for another superb try. The young winger appears to be running his own private 'try of the season' competition and this was one of the best, notwithstanding the poor conditions.

Then, with the last move of the game Ian Hudspith intercepted on his own line before setting off to the other end when brother Mark finished off by sauntering over to land his third conversion.

The Miners can ease Saddleworth's relegation fears tomorrow if they can win at Walney Central. Their next home game is against Redhill on April 21.