Lancashire Lynx 4, Keighley Cougars 98: The Cougars sent Lancashire to a club record defeat with a 17-try romp which lifted them to third in the Northern Ford Premiership last night.

They are now only two points behind leaders Leigh and after their ninth successive victory they are the form team in the division.

But Cougars coach Karl Harrison was far from overjoyed with the win.

"Steve Hampson (Lynx coach) is a good friend of mine and I wouldn't wish this on anyone," he said.

"When you score 98 points against a team then somebody at that club has got to look hard at themselves. This is supposed to be a professional sport and these kind of scorelines should never occur in a professional game.

"However this was great for our points difference. We've got power and pace and played very, very well. The division is that tight at the moment that the top four could well come down to being decided on scoring difference so in that respect it was a good result."

Keighley came close to breaking a couple of records set in their hey day five years ago. Their record score of 104 against Runcorn Highfield always looked under threat and the individual points in a match target, which stands at 36, was narrowly missed by Martin Wood who bagged 34 points.

In fact both records could have gone two minutes from time. Wood finished off another brilliant five-man move but as he looked to ground the ball over the Lynx line the tackle came in to knock the ball loose and the chance was gone.

The Cougars also missed three other glaring chances, probably overcome by the ease with which they were opening up the Lancashire defence, and overall three tries were disallowed so the record scoreline could and perhaps should have been broken.

The Cougars will have another chance when they entertain Lancashire in June.

Paul Harrison scored the first try for Keighley when he crashed over in the seventh minute but Richard Swift became the key player in breaking Lancashire's will.

He burst through the defensive line superbly to send Steve Pickles over then in the 19th minute raced 90 metres downfield from the base of the scrum to score Keighley's third. Wood added the third of his 15 conversions.

After that it was a procession as the Keighley score racked up to 54-0 at the break with Nathan Antonik, Jason Ramshaw, Wood and Phil Stephenson all crossing with ease.

Danny Seal came off the bench to score two quick tries before the break and bagged another pair in what could be his last game for the Cougars.

Keighley continued professionally and mercilessly after the break. Jason Lee got two, Ramshaw, Harrison and Antonik grabbed their second and Dean Hanger came off the bench to work a smart blindside one-two with Mick Slicker for the Aussie full back to score.

Seal notched his fourth in the 77th minute but it could have been five. As it was this was the Cougars' last score with Wood converting and the record remaining intact.

The huge scoreline keeps the Cougars moving up the table and they now have the best points difference in the NFP.

It might have been even better if Lynx's Welsh winger Dave Jones hadn't crashed over from acting half back in the 63rd minute. It was a try he deserved as he for one never threw in the towel.

Lancashire Lynx: Roberts; Doherty, O'Loughlan, Garcia, Jones; Alexander, Barker; Pekepo, Roden, Norton, Millard, Houghton, Vincent. Subs (all used): Davies, Lewis, Potter, Ramsdale.

Keighley Cougars: R Smith; Tomlinson, K Smith, Hallas, Lee; Pickles, Antonik; Hall, Lambshaw, Slicker, Harrison, Walker, Wood. Subs (all used): Hanger, Seal, Stephenson, Yews.

Referee: Ronnie Laughton (Barnsley)

Attendance: 707

Man of the match: Steve Hall

Keith Reeves

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