West Bowling won a rough, tough encounter against Premier Division top-six play-off rivals Thornhill Trojans at Bankfoot Oval.

The scene was set as early as the sixth minute when both teams came to blows following a head-high tackle, and Bowling's Glenn Barraclough and Thornhill's Scott Dyson were sent to the sin-bin.

The Trojans overstepped the mark by back-chatting the referee, and full back Lee Innes made no mistake with the penalty

The visitors then caused a minor sensation when they won a scrum against the head and Bowling had to resort to laying on near the line, leaving full back Craig Holmes with a simple task to level.

Bowling were unlucky not to score when stand-off Danny Ramsden broke clear down the middle, only to see scrum half Steve Illingworth spill the ball with the try-line begging and Thornhill were also denied when stand-off Alex Bretherton just failed to collect a kick over the line.

Former Hunslet Hawks hooker Dyson was the culprit with a head-high tackle on prop Lee Hutchinson, and Innes slotted over the penalty from a difficult angle.

The visitors equalised again when Bowling were caught not square at the play-the-ball, but Innes continued with his spot-on kicking when they obstructed near the posts and scrum half Wayne Loney committed the cardinal sin of questioning referee Richard Stockdale while they were in possession.

Bowling were quickly out of the blocks on the restart and capitalized on their 8-4 lead when centre Paul Gardner ran strongly down the flank in a 40-metre dash.

The ball was moved quickly out to Ramsden and his precision grubber kick to the posts led to Illingworth pouncing for the only try of the match.

Innes added the simplest of conversions to give Bowling clear water at 14-4. Bowling suffered a setback when loose forward Nigel Halmshaw was forced to leave the fray with an eye injury, but substitute Ady Leek showed his superb tackling technique recently acquired at top Aussie club Manley.

Second-row forward Simon Owen produced a bone-crunching tackle to stop substitute Adam Hoyle in full flight to the whitewash, and the Trojans managed to peg back a further two points when the hosts were caught holding down in the tackle.

Thornhill's determined efforts to break down the rock-solid Bowling defence fell on stony ground, and their frustrations boiled over when BARLA Great Britain forward Anthony Broadhead was involved in a melee with Hutchinson and was dismissed. Bowling took full advantage and played out the final minutes in relative comfort.