GAMES don’t come easy for Acorn who, having faced National Conference League premier division table-toppers Siddal the previous week, took on the might of last year’s treble winners Leigh Miners Rangers.

Acorn opened the scoring after eight minutes having had two repeat sets. On the last tackle, Antony Chilton's superb crossfield kick for the corner was collected by winger Joel Johnson who wrestled his opposite number to finish under the posts.

Two minutes later Chilton found Jack Stewart to beat his opposite winger and score.

Buoyed by the early lead, Acorn dominated for the next ten minutes but allowed Leigh Miners back into the game.

Twice they were held up over the line in the same set before regaining the ball from a drop out.

On Leigh’s next attack, there was confusion in the Acorn ranks when a Leigh player appeared to receive the ball in an off-side position. Leigh played on, however, and Jamie King crossed unopposed.

Acorn turned down an easy two points and this led to a try from Joe Porter. As half-time approached, Acorn looked good for their 16-6 lead but Leigh then had a period of dominance and Mitchell Cox reduced the deficit to four points at the break.

Leigh were the beneficiaries of Acorn surrendering possession after the break and centre Lee Grittins found his way across the line.

Acorn struggled to deal with the jinking runs of Leigh’s scrum half Scott O’Brien and his neat off-load let in Connor Ratcliffe before a conversion gave them the lead for the first time.

Leigh knocked on from the kick off and from the resulting set Joe Budd side stepped the defence to put Acorn ahead again.

The game began to ebb and flow but Acorn’s sloppy defence allowed Jordan Hellem to restore Leigh's advantage. Andrew Groves then increased the lead to 22-32.

Leading by example, Acorn forward Porter drove the team from one end to the other and was on hand to take the final pass that put them right back in the game with ten minutes to play.

Leigh centre Sam Peet went over to give his side an eight-point lead with two minutes to play. An unsuccessful kick offered hope to Acorn and Matt Woods broke the line before passing to Joel Johnson to score under the posts.

Despite late momentum, Acorn ran out of time but can take heart from a spirited 34-36 defeat.

In Yorkshire Mens League division one, Heworth, fielding several youngsters, played out a 16-16 draw at King Cross Park.

The Villagers led 10-0 at the break and 16-0 five minutes into the second period, but a spirited fightback by the hosts saw them post three tries in 15 minutes to level the scores with quarter of an hour remaining.

Heworth could have snatched victory two minutes from time but player-coach George Elliott's attempted drop goal bounced agonisingly back off the post.

After an evenly-fought opening quarter, the Villagers went in front after 27 minutes when Elliott's pass put substitute Gary Watkinson in for an unconverted try.

Nine minutes later Elliott and Watkinson combined to put loose forward Joe Deighton through a gap in the home defence and touch down next to the posts for Watkinson to add the extras and give the visitors a10-0 lead at the break.

A superb 50 metre break by Heworth stand off Billy Sturdy, soon after the interval, was halted just short of the line but, from the resulting play the ball, Elliott crossed under the posts and Watkinson's conversion made it 16-0.

King Cross refused to lie down and responded with three tries in 15 minutes from prop Richard Humphries and centres Lewis Tidswell and Joe Gallagher, two of which were goaled by lively stand off Ryan Sweeney to square the match at 16-16.

In a frantic final quarter of an hour, both sides put in a huge effort to take the spoils and eventually it was only the width of the post that denied the Black and White's both points.

A non-stop display by hooker Dave Hayes earned him Heworth's man of the match award and there was also a promising debut from youngster Sam Young.