Leigh maintained the pressure on Championship pacesetters Featherstone Rovers thanks to Sunday's 36-20 home victory over Sheffield Eagles.

Two tries each for Stuart Donlan and Matty Blythe laid the platform for Leigh's win, which reduced Rovers' advantage at the top to a single point.

Dave McConnell, Chris Hill and Robbie Paul also scored tries for Leigh, while Mick Nanyn landed six goals.

But Sheffield never gave up, being rewarded with four tries themselves.

Fresh from last weekend's plucky Challenge Cup effort against Super League leaders Wigan, they ran in two in each half - from Richie Barnett, Tangi Ropati, Aaron Groom and Trevor Exton.

Widnes had to play their second game in three days but their stamina held out as Paul Cullen's men hung on for Sunday's 32-24 win at Batley.

The Vikings, who beat French side Lezignan in their delayed Challenge Cup fourth round tie on Thursday night, raced into a 24-0 lead before running out of steam.

Tries by Shane Grady, James Ford, Chris Gerrard and Paddy Flynn, all converted by Grady, put Widnes in control, only for Batley to bounce back with a stirring second-half renaissance.

The home side rattled Widnes with tries of their own from Sean Hesketh, Alex Brown and two by Jason Walton only for Flynn to claim his second on 61 minutes and effectively seal the win.

In Sunday's other game, Halifax maintained their good run with a 28-10 success at Whitehaven which brought them a fourth consecutive victory.

The Cumbrians were never in the running after falling behind to first-half tries by Shad Royston and Ben Black, both converted by Lee Paterson.

Chris Smith did pull back a try for Haven before the break but Halifax held firm following the restart to go clear with second tries for Black and Royston and a touchdown for Said Tamghart.

Featherstone maintained their 100% record with Thursday night's crushing 13-try, 76-12 victory over a Keighley side marooned at the foot of the table.

Half-back partners Liam Finn and Kyle Briggs led the way with almost 50 points between them.

Scrum-half Finn led the way with four tries, abetted by three conversions.

But stand-off Briggs bettered his 22-point haul with 26 of his own, made up of two tries and nine goals.

Rovers' other tries came from young full-back Zac Hardaker (2), Ian Hardman, Michael Coady, Andy Kain, Ian Morrison and Dane Manning

Barrow stayed in contention with Saturday evening's 34-24 win over lowly Dewsbury at Craven Park.

The Raiders scored tries through Gary Broadbent, Liam Campbell, Liam Harrison, Ned Catic, Nathan Mossop and Anthony Blackwood, with Jamie Rooney and Andy Ballard kicking five conversions between them.

Adam Robinson and Ayden Faals each scored two tries for the Yorkshiremen and Pat Walker kicked four goals.

Brett McDermott (Barrow) and James Walker (Dewsbury) were both sin-binned.

Swinton ended their three-match losing streak with Sunday's hard-fought 20-14 victory over South Wales Scorpions which featured 12 points from Graham Holroyd.

The former Leeds and Halifax stand-off scored a try and kicked four goals, including the conversions to his own touchdown and two others by Dana Wilson, in a vintage performance.

South Wales were always in the hunt but, despite matching Swinton's try count with efforts from Gil Dudson, Aled James and Andrew Gay, they missed all three kicks as Holroyd's old head proved the differnce.

In Sunday's other two Championship 1 games, York City Knights came out on top in a free-scoring 36-34 win over Rochdale Hornets, in which both sides scored six tries.

The goalkicking of Lee Waterman ultimately proved the difference, the centre landing conversions to each of York's tries by Tom Lineham, Dan Wilson, Jack Lee, Kris Peacock, Richard Blakeway and Luke Hardbottle.

Rochdale rallied late on but, despite scores by Wayne English and Phil Wood to add to earlier tries from Danny Samuels, Adam Bowman, Chris Hough and Craig Ashall, the Hornets could not do enough.

Hunslet Hawks climbed back above Blackpool Panthers to the top after an impressive 46-8 win at struggling London Skolars, who are still searching for their opening league win of 2010.

The Hawks raced into a 34-8 lead by the interval with two tries by Michael Mark plus others by Dave Clayton, Danny Grimshaw, Paul March and Wayne McHugh and were never threatened after the restart.

Skolars grabbed two first-half tries through Joshua Welsh and Austen Aggrey and were off the pace in the second half as Hunslet cut loose with two tries by John Oakes and a second for Grimshaw.

Blackpool won 48-12 at home toDoncaster on Friday night, while Oldham clobbered Gateshead 64-10 in Saturday's one game.

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