Unbeaten Hanging Heaton march on with impressive home victory

The club are currently playing home matches at Shaw Cross Sharks after posts at their Bywell Fields home were vandalised but they are on an excellent run with six wins and a draw from their seven matches.

Heaton were in rampent form as they ran in nine tries, six of which came in an impressive first half, and landed seven conversions, with the win helping them move up to third place in the table with games in hand on the top two.

Hanging Heaton took the lead inside three minutes as fierce defence forced King Cross into an error.

The home side capitalised as Jake Green scored in the corner and Adam Bingham landed the touchline conversion.

Aaron James barged over to the left of the posts, with Bingham converting, and Heaton’s third try saw sweeping move to the right finished by Tom Brooke and although the goal was missed, they had opened a 16-0 lead.

Heaton continued to dominate as Declan Tomlinson stepped inside a couple of defenders to go over for a try before Terry Maun showed great footwork to scamper clear from 40 yards out and Bingham tagged on both goals.

Declan Tomlinson went on a mazy run which saw him beat several defenders before producing a slick offload to send the supporting Tom Brooke diving over from close range.

Bingham added his fifth goal and Heaton were in control at half-time.

James went over for his second try, and Heaton’s seventh, wide on the right.

Adam Johnson then raced 70 metres to score following another slick offload from Tomlinson and Bingham added his seventh goal.

Heaton’s final try came from another 70 metre long range solo effort from Danny Hainsworth as he fended off five or six would be tacklers to go over to the left of the posts.

An altercation following the try resulted in the King Cross stand-off being sent off after 67 minutes.

Terry Maun was forced off injured for the home side, while a couple of injuries to King Cross players resulted in the referee blowing for full-time five minutes early.

An impressive first half was Heaton’s best performance of the season as they produced some fantastic rugby, resulting in some excellent tries, while the defence was also ruthless.

Heaton will look to extend their unbeaten run when they travel to second placed Greetland All Rounders on Saturday (kick off 2pm).

Greetland have won seven and lost two of their nine games and are a point above Hanging Heaton having played two matches more.

Birkenshaw Blue Dogs face a tough home game against Oulton Raiders, who have won all 11 of their matches in Division Two Centrel.

Birkenshaw lie third-bottom with four points from nine games and their last outing was a 26-18 defeat at home to Clayton on December 2.

Oulton, in contrast, have won all 11 matches, racking up 47 points in the process including a 30-6 win over Eastmoor a fortnight ago.