RL Conference: Duncan is hat-trick hero as Lock Lane earn comeback win

A strong finish earned an eighth league victory of the season for Lane after they were trailing by 10 points.

The 34-26 success enabled them to close the gap on unbeaten leaders West Bowling, whose fixture with Underbank on Thursday evening was postponed.

The Trojans put the absence of a number of regulars behind them to lead 22-12 midway through the second half.

It was the hosts who started the better with Morgan Punchard going over for an early try, but two touchdowns for Zak Harrod and one by George Woodcock put Thornhill in the driving seat at the break.

And, after Lane’s Craig Duncan had dotted down shortly after the restart, Harry Woollard crossed for the visitors’ fourth try, with Casey Johnson adding his third goal.

However, Lane hit back strongly and went on to seal a great victory with four unanswered tries, hat-trick hero Duncan claiming the first and the last and Mason Hare completing a five-goal tally.

Craig Savage and Chris Siddons dotted down in between the Duncan scores and Woodcock’s second touchdown, in the closing seconds, was merely a consolation for the Trojans.

Lock Lane are away to top of the table West Bowling this Saturday.

Featherstone Lions beat winless Drighlington in a meeting of the bottom two in League F.

Drighlington shocked their hosts as they went in front midway through the first half with John Gallagher going over.

Lions recovered to lead 8-4 at the break courtesy of touchdowns from Elliott Bell and Keiron Redfearn, but they were level after Joe Sheldon’s try on 53 minutes.

However, the Lions closed on top with tries in the final quarter for Josh Maden and Redfearn, both of which were converted by Liam Kaye.

Lions host Thornhill Trojans tonight.