Clayton suffered a bitter double blow in the 20-20 home draw against Brighouse Rangers at Lidget Green.

The Villagers' former international centre Chris Parr had to leave the fray with another knee injury in his first game for two seasons and they were forced to share the spoils after looking to be home and dry when they led the powerful Rangers outfit 20-8 with just ten minutes to go.

Wingman Adam Bairstow was in sparkling form throughout and was duly rewarded with a hat-trick.

He opened the scoring when he won a thrilling race to touch down a neat kick from scrum half Jason Sykes that centre Mark Schofield converted.

Stand off Craig Pickthall showed all his power when he finished off a flowing passing move to put Clayton in the box seat 10-4 at the break. Bairstow once again showed a clean pair of heels to pounce on a Schofield kick and made no mistake when given the chance for his third at the corner.

Schofield added a conversion but Rangers fought back strongly to level the scores in the dying minutes.

Parr suffered another knock on the same knee that nearly finished his career after just 20 minutes play and he faces an anxious wait to see if he has further aggravated his old injury.