York Acorn must beat Castleford Panthers at Thanet Road on Saturday if they are to escape the clutches of the National Conference second division re-election zone.

With six games left, the Blue and Golds need to win the lot to avoid the ignomy of seeking re-election for the second year running.

They will need to improve on last week's abysmal performance when they lost at New Earswick.

Panthers are one of the teams nearest Acorn, who they beat 20-4 at Castleford in November.

The good news for Acorn is that they have several players back this week including utility forward Nicky Warters, centre Steven Irving, winger Tim Wilcock and second row Dave Norman, but a knee injury means Leigh Marshall is out.

Heworth entertain promotion-seeking Eccles in a re-arranged game in division one.

Eccles, fifth in the table and five points off a promotion spot, defeated the Villagers 32-8 in the reverse fixture early in the season.

Heworth have four games left this season and, even though there is nothing left to play for, they will be looking to go out with a bang. That will mean a big improvement from last week's 34-8 defeat by relegation-threatened Blackbrook.

New Earswick All Blacks have a blank weekend in division two as their scheduled opponents, West Bowling, are involved in the fifth round of the BNFL National Cup.

Lee Rollinson's last minute try earned All Blacks Under-10s a thrilling 28-24 win at Gawthorpe.

The try completed a hat-trick for Rollinson against a well organised Gawthorpe side who were often on top. But the young All Blacks showed great spirit to maintain their unbeaten record.

Other tries came from Elliot Bridges and Josh Cockerill with Dan Atkinson, Joe Davis and Dan Lofthouse all in good form.

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