Heworth'S long trip to Millom reaped no rewards as an under-strength side lost 48-24.

The Villagers travelled to Cumbria with only 15 players and, while they did not play too badly, fell off too many tackles allowing the hosts to run in eight converted tries.

Spokesman Ken Sykes said: "There are some signs that we are improving and we scored five tries of our own but we gave away far too many soft tries which meant we were on the back foot."

Heworth took the lead as Will Neary, who along with fellow prop Phil Marwood battled well, powered over from a tap penalty but Millom then took command, with scrum-half Graham Lupton leading the way with a first-half hat-trick.

An error by Heworth winger Gavin Grant on his own line also handed a try to Shaun Errington and, while Grant made up for his error with a touchdown at the other end from a Wayne Foster pass, the 24-8 half-time deficit proved crucial.

The sides traded tries in the second half with Wayne Ruddy, Ian Armstong, impressive loose-forward Tom Sibley and Lupton, with his fourth, all crossing for the hosts, Paul Evans finishing with all eight conversions.

Heworth did their bit, though, as Aussie Aaron Wood twice sent in Luke Judson at either end of the half, while the excellent Judson turned provider in between those scores when his run set up teenager Liam Watling to finish strongly. Teenager Sean Coulson and Wood added conversions, while under-18s player Lee Rientoul did well on his debut at scrum-half.

Updated: 10:30 Monday, October 10, 2005