Championship round-up - week two

Widnes, Halifax and Featherstone Rovers are the early pace-setters in the Championship after each secured their second win of the season.

Halifax overcame Batley's fight back to claim a 34-24 triumph over the Bulldogs at Mount Pleasant on Thursday night.

And that was matched by victories for Rovers and the Vikings on Sunday.

Widnes won a 12-try thriller at Don Valley to beat Sheffield Eagles 44-30, while Andy Kain bagged a hat-trick as Rovers won 40-10 at Dewsbury.

Having not lost a game last year on their way to promotion, Dewsbury are still searching for their first Championship win after a 40-10 home loss to Featherstone Rovers.

Daryl Powell's Rovers ran in seven tries, Kain's treble being accompanied by tries for Ian Hardman, Jesse Joe Parker, Liam Finn and Liam Welham.

Matt Gardner and Jim Gannon both claimed a brace of tries for Paul Cullen's Widnes, who also saw Anthony Thackeray, James Webster and Gareth Haggerty cross the whitewash. Shane Grady added eight conversions.

Tangi Ropati (2), Menzie Yere, Craig Cook and Mitchell Stringer ran in the five tries forSheffield Eagles.

Halifax overcame a second-half Batley fight back to claim a second successive Championship win with Thursday's 34-24 triumph at Mount Pleasant.

Tries from Luke Branighan (2), Dominic Maloney (2), Shad Royston and David Wrench, plus Lee Patterson's five goals, earned Halifax a 34-6 lead.

But Ashley Lindsay's try and full-back Johnny Campbell's two in two minutes earned Batley a losing bonus point.

Ian Millward's Leigh Centurions followed up their confidence-boosting draw against champions Barrow Raiders by comfortably winning 34-12 at Keighley Cougars.

Scottish international Mick Nanyn scored 18 points for Leigh, while Steve Maden, Martyn Ridyard, James Taylor and Robbie Paul also scored tries.

George Raynor and Ryan Benjafield replied for the Cougars.

Having received a bye in round one of the competition, Whitehaven won their first game on Saturday evening, beating Toulouse 34-20.

Loose forward Carl Rudd scored one try and kicked five goals as Haven scored 24 unanswered second-half points at The Recreation Ground.

Championship One

South Wales Scorpions made it two wins out of two with a 18-8 victory away at Doncaster.

Andrew Gay, Steve Parry and David James all touched down for the Neath-based side as Aled James kicked three goals.

Under-strength Doncaster, who lost 26-0 against amateurs Siddal in last week's Challenge Cup, were without four key players: Nathan Anderson, Aaron Henry, Grant Edwards and Craig Fawcett.

Swinton claimed their first win, scoring 10 tries, Sam Reay bagging a hat-trick while team-mate Gavin Dodd added two, in a 52-16 win at London Skolars.

Workington Town put last week's heavy cup defeat to Featherstone behind them as they beat York City Knights 32-22.

Scott Kaighan scored a try and kicked six goals for the home side.

In Friday night's games,Blackpool Panthers earned a 36-14 at home to Rochdale Hornets, while Oldham won 29-16 at Hunslet.