Heworth'S nightmare start to the Arriva Trains Conference division two season continued on Saturday as they were hammered 66-8 away to Rochdale Mayfield.

Home stand-off Sam Butterworth was the main destroyer with a record-breaking 38 individual points from five tries and nine goals to leave the patched-up Villagers in tatters.

The result has underlined the massive turnaround in fortunes for both clubs since last season when Heworth were pushing for promotion and Mayfield were struggling near the bottom.

Mayfield actually ended Heworth's eight-match unbeaten start to last season but, other than this, the York side have a good record against the Lancastrians and were looking to continue that and kick-start their campaign.

But the home side look a different proposition to recent years, with their 12-try success taking them to the top of the table.

Full-back Steve Wood also notched a hat-trick with hooker Neil Ramsden getting two and scrum-half Steve Gartland and centre Ian Sampson one each.

Injury-hit Heworth's only points came from a John Coulson try and two Carl Potter goals.

Heworth spokesman Ken Sykes said: "Mayfield have recruited quite substantially and look a useful outfit now. We were never in it. It's not a record defeat but it was close and was definitely one of our bad days. We've got to try to bring ourselves back together."

Updated: 11:40 Monday, September 08, 2003