Elland lost at sea as Sharks circle

It was a worrying defeat for Karl Fairbank’s men but they still have a six-point advantage over the bottom three.

The game was held up for an hour after half time when Joe Fradgley required an ambulance after sustaining a head injury.

The Elland player was reported yesterday to have sustained no serious damage.

Sharks, among a group of teams closely packed in mid-table, had the game at Greetland in the bag by half time after surging into a 32-0 lead.

A converted try after seven minutes, plus a penalty under the posts for an incident after the try, gave the visitors an eight-point start.

It was the beginning of a landslide of tries as Elland were not at the races.

A Shaw Cross player virtually fell over the line to make it 14-0 and less than five minutes later a walk-in try led to a 20-0 scoreline.

Elland’s defence was virtually nonexistent as Sharks added another before a slick backhand pass paved the way for Sharks’ fifth try of the half.

The visitors added another six-pointer before Fradgley was injured with 30 minutes to go following a collision.

When the game eventually restarted Cross added three more tries to surge past the half-century mark.

Elland finally got on the scoresheet when Gaz Web set up Luke Reed to score but the visitors appropriately had the final say.

Judd Fairbank and Luke Reed showed more fire than most of Elland’s forwards and Fairbank will be demanding huge improvement away at sixth-placed York Acorn next Saturday.