HEWORTH ARLC continued their climb up the National Conference League division three table with a hard-fought 18-6 win at Millom.

This was the fourth victory on the bounce for Scott Rhodes' Villagers, who are now up to sixth following this tough encounter in Cumbria.

The rain-soaked pitch made ball-handling difficult but, after conceding an early try, the Black and Whites hit back to lead 10-6 at the break.

A solid defensive effort kept the home side scoreless in the second period and the Villagers went on to post two further tries to close out the match and bag a rare win in the Lake District county.

Heworth made a poor start, spilling the ball on the kick off and, from the resulting scrum, Millom's veteran player-coach Tom Sibley crashed over for what turned out to be their only try of the match. Stand-off Adam Kelly added the conversion.

On 12 minutes, Villagers centre James Morland looked likely to score after a 40-metre run down the right flank but was hauled down short of the line. A quick play-the-ball caught the defence still retreating and swift handling led to centre Gareth Watson showing good strength to go over in the left corner.

A quarter of an hour later, the visitors got their noses in front with Watson crossing for his second touchdown following a strong break by wingman George Elliott.

Fellow winger Adam Dent tagged on the extras for a slender 10-6 lead.

With Heworth not able to take advantage of another couple of scoring chances, that was how it stayed until the break.

The second half was dominated by defences but the Black and Whites always looked the more creative and likely to add to their total.

And on 54 minutes, long-striding second-rower Fergus Chapman broke through 40 metres out and galloped away to put them eight points in front.

Millom kept plugging away and, seven minutes later, Heworth lost a player to the sin-bin for a professional foul, putting more pressure on their defensive line, but, with Watson to the fore, they weathered the storm.

The decisive score came with 10 minutes remaining when the hosts failed to gather a grubber kick from scrum-half Liam Jackson close to the line on the last tackle and Chapman swooped to snap up the loose ball and touch down for his second try.

Both try-scorers were in strong contention for the man-of-the-match award, with Chapman getting the nod.

York Acorn 'A' fell to a 46-24 defeat at home to Hull Wyke in Yorkshire Men's League division two.

The Blue and Golds remain mid-table having failed to build on victory at Stanningley a fortnight ago.

Despite only having picked up two wins from five this term, Acorn are still only two points off third.

In NCL Alliance League Group 2, Heworth 'A's fixture was postponed after visitors Thornhill Trojans 'A' were unable to raise a team.