Illingworth rubs salt in wounds for West's

Thatto Heath 12

Two late tries from scrum half Steve Illingworth gave West Bowling a resounding victory in the Premier Division relegation dogfight against bottom-of-the-table Thatto Heath at the Bankfoot Oval.

In a match West's had to win to stand any chance of survival in the amateur game's flagship competition, it was the visitors who caused palpitations in the home ranks when stand off Mike Woods was held inches short straight from the kick-off.

Bowling roared back up field and crisp passing between half backs Illingworth and Gareth Cullerton created the hole for full back Peter Simpson to cross.

Simpson added the extras and produced a piece of magic with a clever run around with Illingworth to put Cullerton into the gap to sprint over from 15 metres out.

West's suffered a clear injustice when the visitors put a bouncing grubber kick behind the defence.

Second row forward Simon Owen clearly made the ball dead but when substitute Ian Haselden took a second touch the referee awarded a try. Woods added the simple conversion and the sides changed ends at 10-6.

Thatto came out all guns blazing and the Bowling defence had to work overtime to keep them at bay.

With a mountain of possession, the inevitable touchdown came when wingman Gasonne Dal Ferro took advantage of the extra man to squeeze in at the corner. Woods added the touchline conversion to put the Crusaders into a 12-10 lead.

Bowling settled the ship with loose forward Ricky Helliwell causing huge problems with his straight running and hooker Glenn Barraclough kept the momentum rolling from the ruck.

The St Helens side could not cope with the relentless onslaught and it came as no surprise when Helliwell came on to the crash ball and spun out of the tackle to plant the ball over the whitewash. Simpson duly converted to put his side back in front.

Illingworth, who had led the Crusaders a merry dance all afternoon, scored a peach of a try when he side-stepped Woods, who had raced out of the defensive line, to scamper over.

The sure-footed Simpson slotted over the extra two and was again on target when Helliwell broke clear, passed around the man to find the supporting Illingworth, who sprinted over unopposed for his second try in the space of four minutes.

Thatto were desperately awaiting the final whistle.

But they had to endure another setback when centre Martin Tordoff emphasised Bowling's mounting superiority when he won the race to touchdown after full back Steve Brown failed to collect a high up and under.