Featherstone Rovers continued their flying start to the Championship season as they cemented top spot with a thumping 54-18 victory over Whitehaven.

Rovers, who are now averaging close to 40 points per match, scored 10 tries in a one-sided win that brought a personal 26-point haul for Kyle Briggs.

The stand-off scored three tries and kicked seven goals to the delight of the home crowd at Bigfellas Stadium.

Papuan centre Jessie Joe Parker also grabbed a hat-trick of tries.

Featherstone's other try-scorers were Stu Dickens, Liam Finn and Liam Welham, who touched down twice.

Whitehaven's try-scorers were Reece Fox, Derry Eilbeck and Carl Sice.

Leigh Centurions piled on the misery for Halifax by winning 48-10 at The Shay to leapfrog their rivals into second place.

Halifax, surprisingly dumped out of the Northern Rail Cup by Hunslet a week earlier, were never in the frame after falling 20-4 behind at the break and were totally outplayed following the resumption.

Leigh's Lee Mitchell scored two tries, while further scores came from Stuart Donlan, Jacob Emmett, Matty Blythe, Robbie Paul, Martyn Ridyard and Mick Nanyn, who kicked six goals.

A 77th-minute try by Anthony Thackeray, his third of a thrilling match, snatched maximum points for Widnes in their 36-30 win at Dewsbury.

The result was tough on last year's Championship One winners, who looked to have done enough to share the spoils until Thackeray's late steal.

Chris Spurr also bagged a hat-trick for the Rams but Widnes won with the help of further tries by James Webster, Chris Gerard and Shane Grady, who kicked six goals.

Batley Bulldogs broke this season's Championship duck with Thursday night's 22-12 win over Keighley, to leave the Cougars still winless after four league matches.

Bottom club Keighley had their first win in their sights when they led 12-10 at half-time.

Tries from Tom Burton and Danny Jones, who kicked two goals, edged them ahead of tries from Chris Buttery and Mark Barlow and a Gareth Moore goal.

But Batley secured the points with late tries from Sean Hesketh and Danny Maun, coupled with goals for Moore and Paul Handforth.

Barrow bounced back from last week's disappointing home defeat by Featherstone, romping to a first league win of the season, 48-16, on Saturday evening in Toulouse.

After being tied up 16-16 at the break, Barrow ran in six of their nine tries after the resumption.

The French side had no answer as substitute Liam Campbell led the way with three of them inside 16 minutes.

Centre Liam Harrison, wing Andrew Ballard and new signing Anthony Blackwood all crossed, to add to first-half tries from another of their new men Matt James, hooker Andrew Henderson and loose forward Zebastain Luisi.

Jamie Rooney landed six of Barrow's nine conversions, while the Toulouse tries came from Antoni Maria, Cedric Gay and Kevin Larroyer.

South Wales Scorpions went clear at the top with a 48-6 home victory over London Skolars on a day that saw previous leaders York City Knights fall at resurgent Doncaster.

Lloyd White led the scoring spree with two tries and seven goals, while Steve Parry, Loz Wildbore, Ben Flower, Christiaan Roets, Barrie Phillips and Gil Dudson all crossed too.

Skolars' solitary try was a token late effort from Matthew Carter, converted by Paul Thorman.

"One of our aims is to improve as a team each week and that was a really complete performance both in attack and defence," said Scorpions coach Anthony Seibold.

"We're now starting to look like a rugby league team. We've a whole host of new guys to the game from rugby union backgrounds and they're now becoming good rugby league players."

Doncaster broke their duck at Keepmoat Stadium with an impressive 40-24 success against York that saw the home side turn on the style in the second half after trailing 18-14 at the break.

Eight tries, five after the restart, swept Doncaster to a deserved win.

Hunslet defied the absence of David March and Darren Robinson, both of whom were suspended in midweek, to complete a resounding 44-8 victory over Rochdale Hornets at South Leeds Stadium.

Centre Dave Clayton scored four tries for the high-flying Hawks, while Richard Knight also added two as well as six goals for a 20-point haul.

Swinton Lions were no match for Blackpool Panthers at Fylde where the home side were unstoppable as they maintained their 100 per cent start to the league season with a 54-6 victory.

Only a 76th-minute try by Dana Wilson, converted by Gavin Dodd, spared Swinton the ignominy of being nilled by opponents who scored 10 tries of their own, including two each for Casey Mayberry, Danny Halliwell and Damian Munro.

Gateshead Thunder returned without a point of any description from Workington after losing 44-0 to the Cumbrians, for whom Aaron Low scored two tries.

Town added further scores through Brett Carter, Kris Coward, Ryan Campbell, Mike Backhouse, Jarrad Stack and James Marshall.

Northern Rail Cup quarter final draw: Keighley Cougars v York City Knights, Widnes Vikings v Barrow Raiders, Batley Bulldogs v Sheffield Eagles, Hunslet Hawks v Leigh Centurions

Ties to be played on the weekend of June 5/6 (with one game brought forward to Thursday, 3 June for live TV coverage).

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