Amateur Rugby League: Clayton have only themselves to blame for their 28-10 home defeat by Normanton in the delayed first round Silk Cut Challenge Cup tie at the Delph.

The Knights took an early six points lead, but the Villagers levelled the match at the break with a try from Damian Hunter converted by scrum half Adam Mitchell.

International centre Paul Cornforth marked his return to the fold with one of his specials following a powerful break to ease Clayton 10-6 in front and it seemed only a matter of time before the Villagers put the tie to bed with a number of promising raids against a very ordinary looking Normanton outfit.

But Clayton were rocked back when Knights centre Lee Riddell raced in to score a hat-trick of tries to leave the home side regretting their missed opportunity.

Clayton's second row forward Chris Parkinson was a tower of strength in his first full game and prop Johnny Bruce was man of the match.

There was a surprise result in the first round of the Hudson and Foster Bradford Cup with Undercliffe A edging out Shipley 10-8 in a cracking match at Peel Park.

Shipley took a 6-0 lead with penalty goal from Steve Ellison followed by a try from second row forward Neil Walters. Undercliffe levelled with a converted try just before the break before another Ellison penalty restored Shipley's advantage. Undercliffe kept plugging away and justified their right to progress with a late unconverted try.

Holders Queensbury A beat Wibsey Sedburgh A 42-20 at Hill Top in a match they controlled throughout.

Bury raced into a 22-0 lead with tries from Luke Cooper, Paul Skelton (2) and Ian Thorpe. Shaun Fallon kicking three goals. Wibsey resisted the temptation to throw in the towel and narrowed the gap to 22-16 at half time.

Queensbury then had further tries from Bob Hall, Steven Senior, Stewart Bennett and Andrew Barraclough plus another two goals from Fallon before Wibsey scored a consolation try at the end.

West Bowling A were also in excellent form winning 44-14 at Bankfoot. Bowling hooker Terry Poole did most of the damage with four tries. Chris Scott and Gary Stephenson also crossed and Paul Ali kicked six goals.

Queensbury move top of the Pennine Premier Division following a 32-12 success at Worth Village. Star of the show was 'Bury wingman Steven Gallagher who claimed 16 points with two tries and four-goals. Second row forward Matthew Galtress powered over for two tries and wingman Simon Marsden completed Queensbury's successful day with the final touchdown.

Both Queensbury first choice stand-offs were side lined, but Chris Hogg took to the role like a fish to water and won the best player award.

West Bowling started like a house on fire at Underbank by racing into a 10-0 lead after only eight minutes with a try to Martin Tordoff plus two goals from Jason Woolham. Underbank should have been put further to the sword when they had stand off Mick Clough sent to the sin bin for flopping, but exactly the opposite happened and Rangers posted two unconverted tries to make the score 10-8 at the break.

Bowling then went from bad to worse as they ran out of ideas against a very focused home outfit. Potential match winner Tordoff was virtually a spectator as the ball was constantly trundled down the middle and it came as no surprise when Underbank posted a further try and two goals to make the final score 16-10..

In Division One, Birkenshaw were on the wrong end of some bullyboy tactics and went down 26-8 against Heywood Tigers. Birky could only muster a Phil Smith penalty in the 19-2 interval scoreline, but Andy Redmond maintained his try scoring exploits with a second half effort converted by Smith to give Birky some relief.

West Bowling B lost 30-8 at home to Park Amateurs B. Wes Brook and Carl Moss grabbed the tries as Bowling's paper thin defence was once again exposed.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.