LEIGH MR ended the season on a major high. The 50-6 thumping of derby rivals Wigan St Pat's was their fourth straight win - laying solid foundations for a Millennium charge at the championship.

They wasted no time in breaking down the opposition, Mark Sarsfield clinically finishing a bout of fine passing with a try after just two minutes.

Suddenly they had 16 points on the board: Lee Stretch went in after good work by Mark Edwards, Paul Shepherd worked his way over, Chris Wilkinson tagged on the points.

Shep went on to complete a quickfire hat-trick (just 20 minutes!), the second from Paul Daniel's interception and Peter Sharp's good support, his third from Sarsfield's sizzling break.

The points procession continued after the break, the unstoppable Sarsfield sprinting 70 metres for his TD, Lee Lomax diving in after Mick Warburton had created havoc in a dithering defence.

St Pat's finally troubled the scorers, but Miners were in mood for a let-up and tries followed from Chris Flynn and Damien Fletcher.

LEIGH MR are National League Premier Division champions.

They took the title in style, beating Wigan St Jude's 36-4, showing the qualities that have kept them at the top all year.

Both props were in knock-about form, Sean Frawley storming in for the first try, Richard Varkulis crashing in for two more. Winger Ben Dickinson burrowed over from dummy half to keep the score racing along.

Andrew Gorski, leading the pack, and stand-off Ian Hodson (three goals and a try) were outstanding, centres Simon Hartley and Chris Laughton scored long-range tries.

Great stuff from a great team!

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