Cougars 90, Cardiff Cougars 0 - COUGARS blasted their way to home scoring record -- with a 17-try blitz.

Cardiff Cougars, the student side which was delighted to reach the third round of the Challenge Cup, saw their hopes of adding a professional scalp dashed within minutes.

Welsh winger, Jason Lee, sliced through the defence for the first of his four tries, and the writing was on the wall.

Keighley's 90 points win eclipsed their previous best at Lawkhome, a 67-0 victory over Castleford which had stood since the 1905-06 season. The club's biggest victory was a 104-4 defeat of Highfield on the day they clinched the Division Two Championship in 1995.

They could quite easily have threatened even that record, but were stopped by their own errors as much as any Cardiff defending.

Torrential rain and gale force winds did nothing to help the students who were hoping to make an impression with fast, open rugby -- and it also didn't help Martin Wood with his intitial kicking attempts.

Lee's opening tries were wide on the left, and Wood saw his first conversion attempt stall in the wind and blow back over the touchline.

He instructed Lee to score closer to the posts, and ended the day with 11 successful kicks, two tries and the Silk Cut man of the match award.

The Welsh side didn't have a prayer once Lee had completed his hat-trick of tries in the 11th minute, all Keighley had to do was hold onto the ball and there was usually at least one scoring chance in each set of six tackles. They were guilty of being a over ambitious in their handling in the conditions, but the weather did make play difficult.

To want more than 17 tries may have been a greedy, and everyone had the chance to run with little or no pressure. It may have been the game Cougars needed to get their previously sporadic attacking game into shape.

Max Tomlinson came into his first game of the season for the injured Craig Horne and looked pretty good. He bagged a brace of tries, his first a cheeky dummy to get over from a couple of metres out.

That was in the 14th minute and 7 minutes later Steve Pickles dived over after Wood was held on the line. Lee jinked inside superbly for his fourth on the half hour, Wood and Nathan Antonik also crossed as half time approached.

Wood added five conversions into the teeth of a gale, making it 42-0 at the break.

The second half was even easier. Tomlinson grabbed his second following up a grubber kick from Jason Ramshaw, who then dummied his way over from short range for a typical solo effort. Paul Harrison put Ian Hughes over, and after a couple of bungled efforts Ramshaw and Wood at last combined effectively, Woody racing 40 metres to touch down under the posts and leave himself an easy conversion.

Richard Smith sent Karl Smith racing over before Antonik completed his hat-trick with two tries in two minutes as Cardiff fell apart.

Wood had put Antonik over for his hat-trick try, and he really was pulling the strings throughout the second half, with Ramshaw and Antonik his able assistants mercilessly dissecting Cardiff time and time again.

Wood put Harrison over out wide and Paul Owen jinked over for the 17th and final try, Wood adding his the conversion to give him a great 30 point tally.

The downside of an entertaining game in apalling conditions were the injuries to Lee and Slicker. They could both be out of tonight's crucial clash against top of the table Dewsbury.

Keighley Cougars: Owen; tomlinson, rushforth, K Smith, Lee; Wood, Antonik; Slicker, Ramshaw, Boothroyd, Harrison, Hughes, Pickles. Subs (all used): R Smith, Hall, Stephenson, Thompson.

Cardiff Cougars: Bushnell; Bennett, Thomas, McIntyre, Lawlor, O'Kelly, N Davies; Hodges, M Davies; P Davey, C Davey, Dando, Millard. Subs (all used): Sincleton, Gooding, Williams, Patrick, Davey.

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