YORK Acorn ARLC breezed through their York & District U18s Cup tie against New Earswick All Blacks - with 6ft 7in winger Josh Thompson the star of the show.

Acorn won the round-robin tie 54-10 with Thompson bagging five tries after opening the scoring with a seemingly impossible effort after only two minutes, using all of his frame to reach out to the whitewash when held short. He could have added two more tries to his second-half hat-trick, but for a forward pass and a knock-on.

Acorn’s other scorers were Jordan Myers (2), Harry Bromwich (2) and Hayden Nelson, with Nathan Hammerton kicking seven goals.

All Blacks played a full part in what was a good game, never giving up despite the scoreline.

Meanwhile, Jake Wiseman was man of the match and Ritesh Gurung again starred as New Earswick U12s made it ten wins from ten Yorkshire Junior League outings with a 26-22 defeat of Methley.

Gurung broke through for his first try and, a short while later, picked up a spilt Methley ball close to his own line and raced 80 yards. Sam Briggs converted both tries.

But Methley scored a try after some superb passing, making it 12-4 at half-time, and the second half became more end to end.

Gurung bagged two more tries for All Blacks, and Taylor McDonough saw a gap in the Methley defence to scoot through. Briggs added a third goal. But Methley were also scoring and, late on, cut the deficit to four points.

More good defence, though, caused a Methley knock-on and New Earswick saw out the final set.

Dan Cannon excelled, while Lewis Young took Luke Prenty’s top tackler mantle, although Prenty still took the magic moment award for a one-on-one hit which caused Methley to knock-on close to the try-line.

The ever-improving Heworth U8s fought a fine game against Siddal.

Defences excelled with both sides finding tries hard to come by, man-of-the-match contenders Harrison Barker and Adam Hodgson crossing for Heworth. The whole team put in a big effort in the heat, with Freddie Wilson the top tackler, Dan Clarke the most improved and Harvey Monks the man of steel.

Heworth U7s put in a great team performance in their first game, away to Dudley Hill.

A hat-trick by man-of-the-match Ellis Southerington and a try by Joseph Wregglesworth pushed Dudley Hill all the way before the Bradford side won 9-4.

Southerington was the top tackler, while Jay Downes also shone in an encouraging start to the the team’s first season.