Batley Bulldogs 50 York City Knights 16: York fail to shackle Bulldogs’ Brown and Reittie

Alex Brown showed plenty of pace to collect a hat-trick with Wayne Reittie collecting two to push the score along.

The Bulldogs set off in rapid fashion with Alex Bretherton, Reittie, Brown and Danny Maun keeping the score ticking on at a point a minute during the first quarter.

But suddenly York found their form and hit back in style with centres James Ford and Duane Straugheir bursting through gaps to score long-range tries and narrow the gap.

However, Reittie’s great anticipation enabled him to snap up a chip ahead from mastermind Paul Handforth to make the interval score 24-10.

It was nearly all Batley in the second half as they took advantage of poor York tackling and the Mount Pleasant slope to continually attack the York line.

Brown quickly collected two early tries to claim his hat-trick, props Sean Hesketh and Adam Robinson used their strength to burst through for touchdowns, and fullback Ian Preece sold a beautiful dummy on a curving run to sear through the defence and touch down in the corner.

But York had the final word as prop Jack Steerman took a smart short ball to score in the final minute.

Batley Bulldogs: Preece; Reittie, Williams, Maun, Brown; Handforth, Mennel; Smith, Lythe, Potter, Manning, Bretherton, Lindsay. Substitutes: Buttery, Walton, Hesketh, Robinson.

York City Knights: Bush; Sutton, Straugheir, Ford, Wilson; Thackeray, Presley; Esdrs, Lee, Benson, Clarke, Barlow, Thorman. Substitutes: Stearman, Burns, Garside, Haynes.

Referee: R Laughton (Barnsley).