HOYLAKE were visitors to Hand Lane and it had been a good few years since the two sides had last met at First Team level.

It was Hoylake who came out of the blocks with all guns blazing and they dominated proceedings for the opening twenty-five minutes of the match, which produced a penalty and a well worked, converted, try for them. Leigh 0 Hoylake 10.

Leigh were quick to counter this onslaught and on thirty minutes, good lineout possession and a brilliant miss pass from Alex Leadbetter, put Ollie Shepherd into space, for him to ship the ball onto his brother, Ross, who in turn delivered the scoring pass to Joe Harrison, who was backing up, like all good scrum halves should do, to score near the uprights. Rob Drake added the conversion.

The Leigh revival continued and a strong carry by Connor Longford produced clean ball for Alex Leadbetter to scoot away from the unguarded ruck for a brilliant opportunistic try, converted again by Rob Drake, to take the sides off at half time with Leigh leading by 14 points to 10.

Leigh were on the score sheet again, immediately after the break, when Johnny Drake went over for a try, wide out on the left, following good work by winger, Kyle Carney. Rob Drake narrowly missed with his conversion attempt. 19 points to 10.

Leigh’s domination continued and they added to their tally on 50 minutes, when a remarkable long ball from Alex Leadbetter found Ollie Shepherd in a big hole for him to race away fifty metres, before drawing the full back, to send in Corey Hamer for a spectacular try, brilliantly converted, from wide out, by Rob Drake.

Hoylake narrowed the deficit in the sixtieth minute when they managed to get over the Leigh line from a rolling maul whilst Leigh were down to fourteen men following a yellow card.

Once restored to a full complement, Leigh soon got back into their stride and another glorious pass from Alex Leadbetter put Johnny Drake through a gap in the centres, for him to streak away, from 45 metres out, stepping the full back on the way, to score an excellent try, converted by Alex Leadbetter.

It was the other Drake brother, Rob, however, who rounded off the scoring for Leigh when he spied the opportunity to take a quick tap penalty on the half way line to weave his way through the bedraggled Hoylake defence for a brilliant solo try, again converted by Alex Leadbetter, to take the sides off at the end with Leigh emerging as worthy winners by 40 points to 15.

On Saturday Leigh travel to face Glossop who are currently sitting in fourth position.