Xamax BARLA National Cup first round: Wyke 6 Queensbury 22

A STUNNING try from second-row forward Tom Hainsworth paved the way for a 22-6 Queensbury victory in the opening round of the Xamax BARLA National Cup at Wyke.

Bury raced into the lead straight from the kick-off when Hainsworth collected the ball on his own 20-metre line to break clean up the middle and exchange a smart offload with his supporting stand-off Jordan Brown before collecting a return pass and cross at the side of the posts, leaving full back Robson Moore to tack on the extras.

The black and whites' centre Ryan Exley saw his kick through narrowly roll dead in-goal but Bury’s momentum stalled when they conceded a raft of penalties through their wayward packman John Farr.

A clever hack on from home stand-off Gary Worley nearly brought a dividend and they gained just reward for their endeavours when Exley was put into a huge gap to sprint to the whitewash, allowing second-row forward Alec Williams to level the scores at 6-6 with the conversion.

Bury regained their advantage shortly afterwards when a flank-to-flank passing led to wingman Joe Hall diving over in the corner.

With both packs hammering each other toe to toe, tempers came to the boil, resulting in Bury's pantomime villain Farr foolishly provoking Wyke’s giant prop Marc Goodwin, only to find himself dumped head to foot in the mud, which led to both of them cooling their heels in the sin bin.

Wyke ended the half camped in the Bury red zone, but could not breach a scrambling defence.

The second stanza was a joy to watch for the 200-plus crowd as both sides refused to give an inch.

Bury loose forward Jonjo Naylor covered every blade of grass, with his opposite number Oscar Woodhead doing the same for the hosts.

The spoils were settled bang on the 80-minute mark when Robson picked up from acting half to scoot over at the side of the sticks and added the extras himself for what was clearly going to be the winner at 16-6.

Wyke scrum half Jordan Payton came within a whisker from a kick to the corner in added time before the visitors  received another boost when Brown weaved his way to the chalk, and Robson added his third kick to seal the win.