High-flying Bees are the only victors as trio of Yorkshire clubs suffer heavy divisional losses

The visitors failed to reach their usual high standards and never recovered from conceding three first-half tries.

Some sloppy tackling was duly punished by the hosts whose advantage was narrowed by a penalty from fly-half Tom Smith. A second try from Lymm again resulted from a flawed defence as a gap was duly exploited to make it 10-3.

Sandal just could not summon up their usual cohesion and another unconverted score extended Lymm’s lead to 15-3 at half-time.

A more evenly-balanced second 40 minutes ensued, Smith pulling it back to 15-6 with another successful kick.

However, two penalties towards the end put the opposition out of reach.

One bright spot for the visitors was the return from a season-long knee injury of full-back Tom Coad who looked sharp and will prove a welcome asset as Sandal look to build a successful challenge.

Morley 19 Rossendale 57

MORLEY conceded nine tries as they crashed to an embarrassing home defeat.

Four tries came in the space of just 12 first-half minutes and all after the hosts had made a promising start. Simon Bradshaw kicked Morley into a 6-0 lead before No 8 Danny Collins scored the first of a hat-trick of tries inside 40 minutes.

Winger Bradshaw extended the lead to 9-5 with a third penalty before the wheels well and truly came off for Morley. A converted try on 24 minutes made it 12-9 and three minutes later another extended it to 19-9. Collins then grabbed two more on 31 and 36 minutes, the latter converted, to leave Morley starting the second half 31-9 down.The try count could not be halted after the break and three more scores, again in only 12 minutes, took the damage to 50-9.

Morley showed some late spirit with two tries out wide. Bradshaw grabbed the first before right winger Koby Gyasi crossed to restore a little pride. However, there was still time for one more seven-point score to leave Morley licking their wounds.

Birkenhead Park 47 Beverley 15

Once again forced to field a scratch side due to injuries to experienced players, Beverley went down against a well-drilled and speedy Birkenhead Park side who are challenging hard for promotion.

Beverley took an early lead with a penalty from fly-half Phil Duboulay but Birkenhead struck back immediately with two tries by fly-half Danny Rich and winger Dave Chapman, both converted by full-back Dave Hall.

Flanker Olly Mabbott added a third converted try before Beverley enjoyed their best spell of the game with a period of sustained pressure in the home half.

They showed great spirit, but poor tackling bedevilled them all afternoon and Birkenhead broke away for a fourth converted try touched down by centre Geg Hughes.

It was realistically all over for Beverley but they started the second half strongly and scored a try through flanker Martin Shaw.

Hall and winger Gavin Scott went over for two more tries, one converted, in the space of two minutes to stretch the home lead but the final quarter was more evenly fought.

Birkenhead were restricted to only one further score, a try for substitute hooker Christian Tyms which was converted by Rich, while Beverley scored a second through James Graham which was converted by Steve Johnson.

Bradford & Bingley 38 Waterloo 31

Martin Whitcombe’s men made it three five-point hauls in a row as they cranked up the pressure on the division’s pacesetters.

Stewart Brewer, Phil Greaves and Guy Ford each scored a try as the Bees burst out of the blocks, Gavin Stead helping the score along to 21-0 with three of his five conversions.

Waterloo flickered into life through Sean Colbourne, but the Bees had their bonus point by the interval when Giles Hetherington finished off a neat move.

Waterloo pulled to within nine points either side of the break before Stead kicked a penalty to ease the home side’s worries. Ford looked to have sealed it with a fifth try but there was still time for Waterloo to score 12 more points and threaten to spoil the party.