Centre Mark Gay celebrated his return from injury with a try to keep Queensbury joint top of the Pennine League Premier Division in a 24-4 win over Lindley Swifts.

The late withdrawal of prop forward Craig Richards and centre Gareth Hobson failed to dampen 'Bury's resolve. A try from substitute forward Darren Wilkinson, plus two goals from scrum half Carl Smith, ensured they kept a clean first-half sheet and change ends 8-0 up.

Centre Trevor Stead stole the honours on the restart with two classy efforts, both converted by Smith, who passed the 100-point tally for the season. Lindley managed to grab a touchdown against the run of play.

But Gay's solo effort was the final score of the game and secured the points.

Clayton pushed the other joint leaders Ovenden to the wire in a thrilling game at Lidget Green.

The Villagers made a slow start and were 10-2 down, with only a Mark Scho-field penalty to show for their early commitment.

Young prop Danny Murgatroyd then burst to the fore with two blockbusting tries to level the scores.

Clayton hooker Peter Milnes posted a drop goal, and with the score at 11-16 going into the final half, both sides were in with a chance.

Ovenden had the lucky break and scored a last-minute touchdown to win by the flattering margin of 22-11.

In Division One, West Bowling A's promotion hopes suffered a huge blow went they went down 20-12 at Hudders-field YMCA, while Odsal Sedbergh went top of Division Two on points difference following a 50-4 home win over Hollinwood.

Centre Steve Brown led the way with four tries and Luke Sellers (2), Chris Walsh, Simon Knowles, Lee Lofts and Darren Collins also crossed in the emphatic win.

The biggest shock of the day was Victoria Rangers coming apart at the seams, losing 33-12 at Heywood Tigers. The Vics never got going and crashed to only their second league defeat this season - but a number of controversial refereeing decisions hardly helped their cause.

First-half tries to full back Russ Sigston and centre Ikram Butt kept them in the running at 20-8. A Danny York try then narrowed the gap, but Heywood turned on the pace to put a huge dent in the Vics' championship hopes.

Queensbury A played some sparkling rugby to win 28-16 at Guiseley Rangers - but conceded a succession of penalties for back-chatting.

Full back Andy Barraclough, centre Steven Senior, wingman Paul Skelton, stand-off Gareth McKinley and prop Chris Cannon crossed the whitewash, stand-off Johnny Feather kicking four conversions.

A second-minute drop goal from scrum half Jason Pounder proved invaluable for Undercliffe, who won a nail-biter 5-4 at York Groves.

Top referee Ian McGregor resided over a cracking encounter with Under-cliffe making their possession count by posting a try from pacy wingman Christian Storey. Andy Binns just missed the conversion to close the half 5-4. York pinned down the visitors with a variety of kicks to the corners, but wise old props Andy Kopkecz and Dave Reid rallied the troops to restrict Groves to a solitary unconverted try.