LEIGH Centurions completed a comfortable Easter period with a second heavy win against bottom-half opposition on Monday.

Their nine-try defeat of Workington, which maintained Leigh's unbeaten start to the Kingstone Press Championship campaign and stretched their consecutive winning run to 19 matches, ensured Paul Rowley's side stayed top of the table.

They were made to work for the win, however, with the Cumbrian visitors still in the hunt at half-time.

Centurions went into the break with a 13-point advantage but then pulled away in the second half, to the delight of the 3,000-plus Bank Holiday crowd.

Supporters was also treated to a few extra landmarks, as Bob Beswick made his100th appearance for the club, Gareth Hock enjoyed his long-awaited debut and Martyn Ridyard converted the 500th goal of his career.

After going 36 minutes before troubling the scorers in Friday's victory over Hunslet, Leigh a little under five minutes get on the board this time.

Gregg McNally had been held up, but Town were powerless to stop Sean Penkywicz bustling over.

Penkywicz is in a rich vein of form at the moment and after Carl Forber twice kicked ahead and collected the ricochet to score and convert for Town, it was the hooker who veered away from two defenders to collect his second try of the game for Leigh after 16 minutes.

By that stage, Leigh had lost the services of Fuifui Moimoi and introduced Hock to the mix, and he didn’t disappoint with a number of fearless charges and offloads.

At the other end, Latu Fafita was held up in goal after 33 minutes as the visitors continued to compete while Leigh, spilling a couple of chances through Michael Platt and Ridyard, who was looking around for support after backing up Ryan Brierley.

Leigh eventually added to their tally just before half time when McNally swept down the right before putting Adam Higson over for his first try of the season and Ridyard added his third goal to make it 18-6 at the turnaround.

Two tries inside the first five minutes of the second half for Leigh effectively ended the game as a contest.

Brierley claimed the first, following up after McNally split the defence, while the second saw a long Ridyard kick chased down by Liam Kay, who did well to get to the ball ahead of two Workington players. Ridyard’s conversion took him to 500 goals and Leigh to 30-6.

Visiting full-back Jack Murphy thrice came to Workington’s aid with try-saving tackles and there was a bizarre incident when Sam Barlow got over the line and celebrated by throwing the ball through his legs to the crowd only for referee Chris Leatherbarrow to rule that he hadn’t touched down.

Jarrad Stack intercepted well to charge down the ground for Workington.

But Centurions responded with Hock forcing his way over for his first try after 57 minutes and Platt then atoned for his earlier missed opportunity after a good spin and turn from Tommy Goulden.

Murphy came to Town’s rescue again 10 minutes from time, holding Bob Beswick up in goal, but the Centurions were far from done with the classy McNally adding his sixth try of the season.

Then, as the seconds ticked down, Hock hulked his way over the line for his second try and Ridyard struck for his ninth goal of the game to complete another resounding win.

Leigh Centurions: Greg McNally, Adam Higson, Greg Worthington, Michael Platt, Liam Kay, Martyn Ridyard, Ryan Brierley, Fuifui Moimoi, Sean Penkywicz, Jamie Acton, Andrew Dixon, Tommy Goulden, Sam Hopkins. Replacements: Bob Beswick, Gareth Hock, Sam Barlow, Jake Emmitt.

Referee: C Leatherbarrow.

Attendance: 3,017.