WYKE warmed up for next week's BARLA National Cup first-round tie against Queensbury with a convincing 28-4 home win over Pennine League strugglers Wakefield City.

The Wakefield outfit, who deserve a pat on the back for keeping their flag flying despite being firmly rooted at the bottom of the Division Two Central table, gave as good as they got in a tight opening 20-minute period.

Then forward Sam Kittsen broke clear to put full back Jimmy Wain en route to the chalk to open the home account.

Props Jonny Fawthrop and Ash Hutchinson began to punch huge holes in the visitors' rearguard, which set up shop for man of the match stand-off Jordan Payton to thread through a clever grubber kick.

This allowed Hutchinson to swoop for the black and whites, which was quickly followed by a classy Alec Williams solo effort to increase the lead at the break.

Wyke centre Ryan Exley raced clear from the restart kick-off and a quick passing exchange found giant second-row forward Williams, who crossed the whitewash for his brace.

Payton then caused the Wakefield full back acute embarrassment when he wrestled the ball from his grasp in a one-on-one tackle to saunter to the posts.

The best try of the game was engineered by Payton as he launched a pin-point kick to the corner which was collected by wingman Tevin Campbell's diving catch to touch down in style.

Wyke coach Ian Wormald was delighted with the outcome and said: "Wakefield gave us a good contest but we dominated the game and the result would have been higher if we had kicked more than the two conversions on offer.

"We had a 30-20 win at Queensbury in our league match but I expect next week's cup game to be great arm wrestle, to say the least."

Clayton coach Scott Pendlebury had his 25-man squad going through their paces when Beeston Broncos gave notice at midday that they could not raise a team.

The second-bottom Leeds outfit could only muster eight players and thereby conceded the match.

Clayton spokesman Dave Pickthall expressed his disappointment as he explained: "Our last home game was in early November and we missed out on the revenue we require to fund the day-to-day running of the club.

"Next week's visit of leaders Oulton Raiders will go some way to redress the balance and we are making representations to the Pennine League to have a more balanced home and away fixture list."