Someone had to suffer for last week's defeat and Wath-on-Dearne were the unlucky victims of a 19-try romp inflicted almost without mercy by Malton and Norton.

With The Gannock playing surface having made a remarkable recovery from the drenching it had taken during the week conditions were almost perfect for Malton's expansive game.

The hosts exploited that advantage to the full to win 123-7.

A very young and inexperienced Wath outfit had no answer to the pace and invention of the home side.

After only seven minutes Malton had opened up a 21-point lead and an avalanche looked certain.

Some of the ball handling and lines of running from both backs and forwards was truly top class.

Apart from a five-minute spell when Wath threatened to get back into the match it was all one-way traffic and half time arrived with Malton leading 49-0, from seven tries all converted by Ian Cooke.

For the second period Malton introduced recent convert Rob Laverick to the fray for his home league debut and he introduced himself with his first try with a strong run to the posts.

With Wath by now totally demoralised the scoring became a procession. Again some of the rugby was breathtaking and the teamwork superb as tries came thick and fast.

Skipper Chris Creber touched down a record six times and added one conversion.

Carl Rushworth revelled in the situation and bagged four tries, while Ian Mansell touched down three times.

Other tries came from Matt Richmond, Neil Gilbertson, Phil Ryan, James McKay and Tim Chapman.

Cooke was to kick 13 conversions in total.

Again this was a great team performance and the match sponsors, Francis Transport, rightly decided that the entire team should receive the man of the match award as all 18 players used produced the goods in such an emphatic way.

With promotion rivals Leeds Corinthians losing Malton moved into third spot, a mere single point behind Stocksbridge but with a game in hand and a points difference infinitely better than their rivals.

Updated: 11:55 Monday, March 04, 2002