Miners V Oxford

Leigh Miners 32 v 6 Oxford RL

Leigh Miners made history on Saturday afternoon when they become the first amateur side since Egremont Rangers & Ellenborough Rangers in 1998 and West Hull before them in 1996 to make it through to the fifth round of the Challenge Cup, comfortably beating Championship one side Oxford RL 32-6 in front of nearly 800 at LSV and also becoming only the second Miners side to beat professional opposition with the first being sixteen years ago in 1999 when they beat Bramley.

The opening exchanges of the game where very fast with Oxford coming out strong in the opening ten minutes, scoring the opening try of the through loose forward Jonny Payne after keeping the ball alive, Danny Allan converting to make it 6-0. Miners soon settled after the early set back and started to go forward well especially on the edges with Ellis Grimes, Tommy Parkinson and Adam Thomason causing all sorts of problems. After building pressure and having the better of the field position Miners scored their first try just after the twenty minute mark out on the right when Scott O'Brien found a gap to send Ellis Grimes crashing over to score and make it 6-4. Five minutes later the men from Twist Lane were in again when Adam Thomason broke down the right, keeping the ball alive to move back across field with Scott O'Brien finishing off a well worked try, Jonny Youds converting to give the score 10-6. With the half hour approaching in these games it's normally the amateurs who tire towards half time but not in this case, the Championship One side looking very tired, offering little in attack and struggling in defence with Miners playing fast on them. Mike O'Boyle scored a third home try a few minutes before the break after Miners again caused Oxford problems out wide. Youds adding the extras to give Miners a ten point advantage going into the half time break leading 16-6.

Miners knew they would have to come out switched on after the break with Oxford starting the first half well, but the visitors offered very little in the second period with Miners comfortably defending anything Oxford threw at them. The game was as good as over on fifty two minutes when young winger Harry Gagen made the most of mix up between the Oxford winger and full back, picking up the loose ball to go and stroll in under the sticks and slam the ball down, Youds adding the extras to make it 22-6. Miners scored a fifth try just after the hour when the hard working Connor Ratcliffe powered over on the right Youds again adding the extras to increase the advantage to 28-6. Adam Thomason finished the scoring inside the final ten minutes when he scored in the corner to make it 32-6, much to the delight of everyone at Leigh Miners as they now look forward to the draw on Tuesday night and hope they get a real money spinner as a reward for this great win!

This weekend Miners are at home again against Rochdale Mayfield in the league.

MINERS TEAM = Jonny Youds, Harry Gagen, Mike O'Boyle, Adam Thomason, Bud Skinkis, Shaun Dowie, Scott O'Brien, Matt Astley, Danny Jones, Darryl Kay, Tommy Parkinson, Ellis Grimes, Connor Ratcliffe, Subs = Tony Doyle, Tom Farrimond, Martin Gray, Chris Bowers

MINERS MOM = Jonny Youds

OXFORD TEAM = Louis Richards, Johnny Morris, Marcus Brooker, Andrew Hoggins, Aaron Jones Bishop, Danny Allan, Andy Speake, Jordan Andrade, Nathan Kitson, Kyle Danns, Josh Scott, Ed Hayles, Jonny Payne Subs = Wes Newton, Graham O'Keeffe, Tom Davies, Luke Evans

OXFORD MOM = Andrew Hoggins

Leigh Miners 2nd team started their defence of the NWML Trophy on Saturday, beating Halton Farnworth Hornets 36-4 away in the first round.

The u18s got back to winning ways on Sunday when they beat Leyland Warriors 52-10 at home in the league.