Hanging Heaton crush Harlequins and maintain march towards title

Victory saw Hanging Heaton extend their unbeaten run to 11 matches and they remain three points clear of Greetland Allrounders with five matches remaining. Heaton had four players withdraw from their squad late on and with Batley Boys in Challenge Cup action, other key figures who have been playing winter rugby with the club were unavailable and they travelled with only 13 players. Despite this, Hanging Heaton ran in 15 tries, all of which were converted before the referee blew up early to save the home side from further punishment. Man-of-the-match Max Vernon led Hanging Heaton’s romp to victory as he bagged a hat-trick of tries and landed 13 goals for a personal haul of 38 points. The pitch was very heavy making, the visitors attack restricted as far as playing with their usual flair and it proved a real for the forwards. Debutant Danny Brown also had an impressive game and bagged a brace of tries, while Marcus Ely made inroads every time he got the ball and his quick thinking offloads to supporting runners helped set up three tries, while he also grabbed one himself. Vernon began the rout in the early stages when he broke away to score the opening try, which he improved. Ben Hardacre raced clear for the second, which Vernon converted, before Cowling’s best chance to avoid being nilled came when Daz Greenwood was off target with an attempted drop goal. Danny Brown, Simeon Torr and Adam Johnson all raced through some weak Harlequins tackling to grab tries, and with Vernon maintaining his 100 per cent kicking record, Hanging Heaton had raced into a 30-0 lead. Ryan Hardwick went over for the sixth try and Vernon improved before crossing for his second try, which Anthony Fallas goaled as the one sided contest continued. Tom Ripley gathered a Tom Brooke offload to score, with Vernon converting, before Danny Brown brought up the half century when he added his name to the growing list of try scorers and Vernon again landed the goal. Torr dropped on a loose ball and sprinted 50 meters for his second try and the 10th of a dominant first half and Vernon again converted for a 60-0 interval lead. There was no let up after the break as Marcus Ely offloaded to Tom Brooke and backed up to take the return pass and plant the ball between the posts, to give Vernon a simple goal. Tom Ripley raced away for Hanging Heaton’s 12th try before Torr completed his hat-trick with another long range effort and two further Vernon goals extended the lead to 78-0. Vernon capped an impressive display by completing his hat-trick and tagged on his 13th goal of the afternoon. Adam Johnson completed the rout with the 15th try, which he also converted, before the referee ended Cowling’s misery by blowing for full-time early. Hanging Heaton go in search of their 11th win of the season this Saturday when they visit West Craven Warriors.