Round 19 of the 2022 Betfred Championship took place over three days on a warm July weekend with the Bradford Bulls and London Broncos starting off proceedings on Saturday evening.
Sunday afternoon saw an early kick-off between Sheffield and Barrow with the remainder of the games kicking off at three o´clock. Dewsbury hosted Leigh, Halifax took on Workington, Whitehaven were up against Featherstone and Widnes welcomed Newcastle.
The final game, live on Premier Sports, was scheduled for Monday evening as York faced Batley.
The Sheffield Eagles have taken the mantle of a side who cannot hold onto leads as they again threw away a good advantage, this time in losing 36-32 to Barrow Raiders. Chrimes and Ritson, and then Jones-Bishop and Stack exchanged tries before two from Aston in the last six minutes of the half gave Sheffield a 22-12 lead at the interval. Farrell and Jones-Bishop added two more in the second half and the Eagles led by 32-12 on the hour mark, the points seemingly in the bag. But then Barrow launched a fightback and scored four tries in a devastating sixteen-minute spell with Johnston, Gillam, Toal and Ritson all crossing to steal the win and break Eagles hearts.
London set out their stall from the outset but it took them twenty-eight minutes to take the lead against the Bulls through Macani. Williams added a second six minutes later but Kear grabbed one back for 6-12 at the break. Flanagan added a second Bulls try just after the restart to level the scores and it looked like the game was in for a close second half but London turned on the style with tries from Ulberg, Hall and Moceidreke to secure a crucial 30-12 win to lift the Broncos out of the bottom three.
Despite ging behind to a second minute Butterworth try, Leigh Centurions made no mistake of pressing home their claim to top the table at the end of the season with another big win. Inu levelled the scores on seven minutes with O-Donnell, Aekins, Stone, McDonnell and McDonald all scoring before the interval for 34-6 at the change of ends. Charnley, Mellor, Reynolds (2) and Ipape added five more tries in the second half for a massive 60-6 victory.
Featherstone are the leaders of the chasing pack and had a couple of scares against a struggling Whitehaven. Evans put the Cumbrians in front in the second minute but Smith and Briscoe scored for Featherstone for 10-4 before Singleton got ´Havens second which saw them trailing by 8-10 at the break. Leilua, Ferres and Smith all went in for the flat cappers in the ten minutes after the restart before Aiye grabbed one back for the home side to give them some hope, but when Hardcastle and Broadbent crossed to make it 40-18 it was all over. Aiye and Wildie exchanged late tries, Fev´ winning by 46-24.
It was some afternoon for Halifax´s Joe Keyes who scored thirty-four points in his sides 58-10 demolition of Workington Town.Keyes opened the scoring on seven before Workington equalised through Fitzsimmons for 6-6. Garside, Arundel and Barber scored before the interval for a 22-6 interval lead, but that was before the Keyes show really got started. Two tries in two minutes just after the restart extended the lead before Fairbank, Saltonstall and Arundel got in on the action. Keyes added his fourth try with five minutes remaining for 58-6 with Clegg getting the last points of the afternoon for Town, the conversion not being added.
Widnes and Newcastle had quite a tussle before the Vikings emerged victorious by 33-26. Lawton and Davies gave the home side a 12-0 lead, but Halsall and Johnson scored for Newcastle to level the scores. Fleming put Widnes back ahead just before the half hour and they took a 20-12 lead into the sheds. Ince went over again for the home side just after the restart for 26-12 before tries from Halsall, Day and Boafo tied things up at 26-26 as the game entered it´s last ten minutes. A Fleming drop goal with three minutes remining edged the Vikings in front and Fleming added a try, converted by Tyrer, in the dying seconds to seal the win for the Chemics.
