Siddal cut leaders to ribbons

The visitors took a fourth minute through a try from hooker John Hayward but for most of the rest of the game the Castleford side were chasing shadows as half-backs Chris Brooke and Shaun Garrod spread the play across the full width of the pitch.

Siddal drew level on 11 minutes after the ball was quickly transferred through several pairs of hands and right wing Emerson Newburn touched down in the corner.

Gareth Blackburn couldn’t convert from the touchline but he only had to wait another four minutes before he was taking aim again.

Lock Lane only had themselves to blame after kicking the ball out on the full from a restart beneath the posts. From the resultant penalty Garrod sliced through the Lane defence to score at the side of the posts. Blackburn added the goal.

In the scorching conditions Siddal were threatening to cut loose and only desperate defence was keeping Lock Lane in the game. But they couldn’t hold out. In the 23rd minute hooker Craig Sanderson went down the short side from 15 metres out and passed to left wing Gavin Stead who simply ran over the top of his opposite number to score. Blackburn added a great conversion to stretch Siddal’s lead to 16-4.

Siddal were over again on the half hour mark after Lock Lane had conceded back to back penalties. Once again Garrod was just too quick for the Lane defence as he scored a carbon copy of his first try. Blackburn converted again.

Lock Lane were looking down the barrel but after Siddal also gave away back to back penalties, the visitors capitalised with their second try to forward Chris Tudor after a smart, delayed pass by halfback Mick Haywood.

Scrum half Danny Rowse surprisingly missed the easy conversion and the teams went to half time with the Siddal 22-8 up.

Lock Lane were unlucky not to cut the deficit immediately after half time but referee Chris Dean ruled a forward pass as Tudor ran through a gap in the Siddal line.

Siddal stepped up a notch. On 44 minutes Blackburn joined the line and sent in a perfect grubber for Stead to chase and beat the Lane fullback to the ball to score. Blackburn added the goal.

Stead collected his hat trick 11 minutes later after a fine pass by Garrod and then some great agility as the winger sped down the touchline and scored by the left flag. Blackburn added yet another great conversion and at 34-8 Siddal were out of sight.

On 58 minutes Blackburn again joined the line but on the right flank this time and though he was just held short he managed to off-load to centre Richard Lopag who finished off nicely in the right hand corner. Chris Brooke couldn’t add the goal.

Siddal closed the game out in the last 10 minutes with two further tries.

The first was arguably the try of the game as first veteran Nicholas Smith scooped up a stray Lock Lane pass, ran 20 metres upfield and then handed on to Stephen Hope, who ran 60 metres down the centre of the pitch, leaving three defenders in his wake to score under the posts. Blackburn added two more points.

Finally, a fine short pass by Garrod to Jaymes Chapman saw the latter run through powerfully from short range to touch down. Another Blackburn goal, to bring up a personal haul of 14 points, closed the game out at 50-8.