This weekend sees yet more interesting clashes and this is something I have said and will continue to say such is the intense nature of the NCL competition and the proximity of the top and bottom teams in terms of ability.

The weekend of 27/09/08 sees three teams on the road, they being Wigan St Patricks, Oulton Raiders and York Acorn.  Whilst the other two teams Wigan St Judes and Hull Dockers have the luxury of a home tie.

Wigan St Patricks are the only team crossing the pennies as they head over to West Hull, Pats will be looking to build on their last two victories and put a run together and push themselves towards the top six.  West Hull will have other ideas and will be aiming to maintain their reputation as one of the strongest team in the competition and regain some form from the all conquering side of the late nineties.

Of the other travelling teams, both fixtures both see all Yorkshire derbies.   York Acorn head to Siddal and look to maintain their 100% winning streak, however Siddal is always a hard place to visit and take points from, today will be no exception.  Oulton meanwhile visit struggling Thornhill and look to get some consistency in results and put back to back vctories together for the first time this season.

Home teams see an all Lancashire clashand a Hull derby.  The Lancashire clash sees St Judes entertain Mayfield and look to avenge previous defeats when the sides last met and were in NCL 1, Judes need to end their dip in form and recapture the spirit and guile that saw them win the first two league games very comfortably.

Hull Dockers are playing host to Skirlaugh in arguably the pick of the afternoons games.  No doubt with it being a local derby the form guide will go out of the window and the most passionate and disciplined side invariably will come out on top.  Skirlaugh are struggling to find the consistency of recent years and Dockers will be looking to bounce back from last weeks defeat and maintain their 100% home record.

Oulton Raiders produced a very good team effort at Raider Park for the second consecutive home clash to leave previous undefeated Hull Dockers tasting their first loss of the season.

Head Coach Danny Burton made a few changes to the previous week with Chris Walker, Mick Coyle, Mark Stubley and Danny Stanley all promoted to the starting line up following last Saturday’s 40 – 23 loss at Skirlaugh. Tommy Griffiths also returned to play from the bench after playing the previous night for Huddersfield Giants in their clash at St. Helens in the Reserve Team Championship Final Eliminator.

The game started with the Dockers finding touch from the kick off after a complete lack of communication on the Raiders right hand side. From the scrum base, Danny Ulyatt found Chris Stephenson on a set play who in turn returned the ball to Ulyatt who passed to right winger Stuart Lambert who strolled over for a well worked try. You could hear a pin drop. Stephenson added the conversion for a 0 – 6 lead in the first minute.

The Dockers hooker Steve Musgrave and prop forward Matthew McGuire had Toured Australia with the full Great Britain Academy side seven Summers ago back in 2001 along with the likes of Sean O’Loughlin, Jon Wilkin, Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow, etc and they certainly showed up well early in the encounter.

The Raiders replied midway through the half when Lee Williamson crashed over for a very well deserved score which Danny Stanley converted to make it level at 6 – 6. Williamson was a tower of strength in the pack for the full 80 minutes and led the way forward all afternoon in attack and defence.

Scrum half Steve Sellars was the next to cross when he scored on the Dockers left after some soft online defence let him over. Robbie Smith was having a terrific game on the left wing for the visitors and showing some great pace with loose forward Mike Jarvis getting through a stack load of work.

The Raiders forwards were getting away plenty of off loads and threatening the Dockers in midfield but often the final pass went to ground. Scott MacDonald found space on one particular break and although he chipped over looking to re gather it was Smith who was there to cover up and make a great kick return.

The Dockers almost doubled their lead after some rare confusion at the back involving Alan White but MacDonald came up with some tremendous cover himself to stop a certain try.

At 6 – 10 in favour of the Dockers at half time the game was in the balance.

The Raiders hit the Dockers cold with two quick tries early in the second half. Chris Walker intercepted a Stephenson cut out ball on his own 10 metre line before racing up the right hand touchline. Ulyatt came across and when Walker stepped inside, Ulyatt slipped and Walker then put the footdown to accelerate past Steve Sellars to score for a fantastic 90 metre solo effort. It was unlucky for Ulyatt who made seven try saving tackles in the game and the one he missed was due to slipping on the surface. Stanley goaled for a 12 – 10 lead for the hosts.

Hooker Aidan Bowden was the next to cross thanks to a fine team effort involving a series of passes. Stanley once against added the extras for a score of 18 – 10 and he himself was leaving a good solid mark on the game as it went on with some strong bustling runs down tight to the ruck. The Raiders seemed to be gelling more and more as the game went on with the half back combination of Gavin Wood and Scott Goodall coming more into their own.

Ulyatt had other ideas though when he scored a fine individual try in front of the posts for Stephenson to goal and he then added a penalty goal soon afterwards to make the scores level at 18 – 18.

Griffiths introduction from the bench was a master stroke and his influence from the back was a real positive. Mark Holmes and Jamie Fields too added much to the pack and rotated well with Andrew Falkingham and Mick Coyle.

Ian Booth produced a terrific off load to set up the winning score. Bowden backed us as ever and when Griffiths appeared the final pass was a good one and he raced over from 30 metres out much to the delight of his team mates. Stanley goaled and clinched the game with a penalty goal in the dying minutes to ensure the points was in the bag.

Dockers Head Coach Lee Richardson spoke well as always after the game and his side face a local derby at home to Skirlaugh next Saturday at Tower Grange.

The visitors man of the match went to Mike Jarvis with Danny Stanley getting the hosts man of the match. Lee Williamson received the player vote for his efforts during the course of the 80 minutes.

Next Saturday the Raiders travel to Overthorpe Park to face up to Thornhill Trojans who are currently rooted to the bottom of the Premier Division with no wins to date. Head Coach Burton will be looking for a positive response from his player at training and away from training this week to ensure consistency is maintained. Consistency is something which has lacked in recent times.

Judes travelled to table toppers York Acorn and although they put in a gallant effort they came away empty handed to the superior York Acorn side.

In a game were the man in the middle was quite evident and a game littered with penalties, the home side went 4-0 up in the first five minutes with two penalties from Jonny Liddel before Scott Robinson pulled one back.

On  20 minutes Acorn crossed when a one handed pass from Ian Brown sent winger Leigh Rientoul in wide, Liddel failed to convert but later added another penalty before Judes replied when equally good centre play from Steven King put Barry Rothwell in on the flank that Robinson goaled.

Another Liddel penalty gave the home side a 12-8 half time lead. Immediately after the break Paul Pendlebury broke and fed  M.O.M. Gavin Corfield who crossed behind the posts, Robinson put the visitors in front for the first time. York hit a purple patch and ran in three trys in quick style from Reintoul a superb solo effort, Andy Gargan and Danny Liddel, Jonny Liddell converted all three to take his goal tally to 6 and then added a penalty to make it 7 from 7.

Judes were not done yet and good pressure resulted in Shaun Spowart putting fullback Anthony Ridyard under the sticks Robinson obliged to wrap up the scoring.

This weekend sees the following fixtures, over in Yorkshire  Oulton Raiders host high fliers Hull Dockers with Oulton looking to kick start their season and Hull Dockers looking to maintain their 100% record.  York Acorn clash with Wigan St Judes in a tie that sees York another team looking to maintain their 100% record and St Judes looking to recapture their form from rounds 1 and 2.   Meanwhile in Lachashire Wigan St Pats entertain Thatto Heath and look to build on last weeks victory despite the abscence of some key personell.

BARLA Cup Holders East Hull came away with the spoils with a 20 12 win At Wigan St Judes.  East broke the deadlock on 5 minuets with a Scott Yeaman goal.  Both defence were on top at this point then on 15 minuets Judes leveled the scores with a Scott Robinson goal.   On 25 minuets a Lee Roberts try and Yeaman goal put east 8-2 lead.  On 38 minuets Judes hit back with another Scott Robinson goal half time 4-8.  On 50 minuets Judes got back in the game with a Scott Robinson goal.  On 55 minuets East hit back with a Gary Weymes try goal again by Yeaman.  East Hull incresed their lead further on 60 minuets  with a Mike Handelby try goal Yeaman 6-20.  At this point East were well on top Judes had the final say in the scoreing matters with a 78th minuet carl jones try goal by Darrell King.

Man of the Match for Judes was  Paul Pendlebury.

Next week York Acorn - Away