BEST boys Leigh have scaled some notable peaks in 2015 but conquering Everest has yet to happen for Paul Rowley’s classy Centurions.

And during a campaign of relatively few lows so far, no-one at Leigh Sports Village wants to suffer the ultimate disappointment.

From an opening 18-14 pre-season win over Wigan in Paul Prescott’s Testimonial through to retaining the League Leaders’ Shield with success over Dewsbury, Leigh have scythed a victory trail through to the impending Super League qualifiers.

Their 23 Championship fixtures yielded 972 points, including a 72-6 rout of Hunslet, 60-0 whitewash over Whitehaven and a 66-10 drubbing of Doncaster. Just for good measure 2014 Super Leaguers, London Broncos, were demolished 64-12 in the Challenge Cup.

Leigh scored 50 points or more in nine league games, giving them a proud tag of the Championship’s great entertainers.

But it hasn’t all been serene progress to the verge of Super League.

In front of 7,449 fans, Leigh opened their campaign with a fiery victory over Jimmy Lowes’ Bradford Bulls.

Leigh Sports Village was no place for the feint hearted on that February afternoon as the Championship’s top two slugged it out – literally.

In front of their biggest home gate for a decade, boosted by Fuifui Moimoi’s league debut, and in a brutal contest of six yellow cards, Leigh battled back from 20-6 and 24-22 down to win 36-24.

There was payback, however, with head of rugby Derek Beaumont later fined £2,000 for behaviour deemed to be prejudicial to the interests of the game.

Bradford recently banned Beaumont from Odsal for their game against Featherstone and he was on holiday when the sides were involved in a 36-36 humdinger in front of 9,181 at the same venue on July 19.

That dropped point was one of only three lost all season from a maximum 44. And the sole blemish came with a 29-20 loss at London Broncos on June 7.

Defeat was all the more surprising after Leigh's cup slaughter of the Barnet-based outfit on home turf three months earlier.

However, after a club record 27 consecutive wins stretching back to July 2014, Leigh’s stars tasted defeat. But even that loss was turned into a positive.

“There was a lot of pressure until that game,” agreed skipper Oli Wilkes. “Losing it actually took the pressure off.

“Everyone wanted to be in the side that took the unbeaten tag off Leigh Centurions. Once it was out of the way we started playing free-flowing rugby again.”

That pressure had been evident against Halifax three weeks earlier in another stormy encounter seized upon by the club’s critics.

Leigh came from 14-6 down to win 22-14 in a game of four sending-offs and two further yellows.

More bother erupted a fortnight later when Centurions and Featherstone put the biff into the Summer Bash at Blackpool. Gregg McNally’s hat-trick in a 31-12 victory was largely forgotten as Gareth Hock, Bob Beswick and Liam Kay were sin-binned while Rovers’ Paul Wood was red carded and Gareth Moore shown yellow.

Beaumont claimed notorious bad boy Hock was being singled out for rough justice from referees.

Certainly, the former England, Wigan, Widnes and Salford hard man’s hair trigger temper has generally been kept under control since his controversial move from the Red Devils.

Hock’s drop down a division generated its own inevitable headlines with Beaumont and fellow pantomime villain, Salford owner Dr Marwan Koukash, trading insults over Twitter.

So, imagine Leigh's delight when they dumped their Super League neighbours out of the Challenge Cup back in April. Hock played despite the threat of legal action from Koukash and helped Centurions to a 22-18 win over a side then fourth in the top tier.

A hard earned 36-30 win from 24-6 down followed in the next round at Wakefield to set-up a short quarter-final trip to Warrington.

Leigh have never been far from a headline in 2015, ruffling more feathers than a neighbourhood cat chasing a flock of sparrows.

Micky Higham’s shock switch from the Halliwell Jones Stadium to become a Leyther again provided the spicy sub plot to this particular game.

“It gives you a lesson in that you don’t know everybody quite in the way you think you do,” said Wire coach Tony Smith of the £50,000 transfer.

Higham, who scored his first try for Leigh in 15 years when he touched down against Featherstone at Blackpool, was cup-tied as part of the deal.

He was reduced to the role of water carrier as the noisy neighbours almost stunned the three-time recent Wembley winners. They led 14-12 at half-time and were only undone by a try of the season contender from Kevin Penny to inspire Warrington to their final 34-24 success.

In defeat, came an overwhelming message: "We are good enough for Super League."

Time to begin the ascent of Everest.