York's two National Conference sides were both struck down with the away-day blues to continue a miserable start to the season.

Both York Acorn and Heworth lost by 36-plus margins with Acorn's division one defeat at Widnes St Maries tipping the scales for the worst day.

They lost 48-8 after only being down 16-8 after 48 minutes. Widnes had a stranglehold on the game with two tries to stretch their advantage before influential prop Lee McTigue was sent off with a St Maries player for a 56th-minute altercation - and Acorn fell apart.

What followed were five extra tries with three additional goals to turn the beating into a thrashing and leave the Thanet Road side languishing third from bottom.

Full-back Matthew Embleton had managed to get a try early on, and centre Kyle Palmer goaled twice to prevent the wash-out but it simply wasn't enough.

Acorn will be delighted when they finally get back on their home Thanet Road pitch once re-seeding has been completed but there is some light at the end of the tunnel in the form of next week's opponents - bottom team Milford Marlins.

In division two, Heworth led 10-6 after a sparkling first 20 minutes had seen John Coulson get the first points of the day on the board with Carl Potter adding the bonus two with his boot.

Rob Speich then followed it up with another try after a Stanningley score in between.

But even though both Luke Judson and Dan Briggs worked tirelessly to rack up impressive performances for the Villagers, Stanningley ran in three second-half tries to easily secure the maximum points they were hunting to keep them among the early movers and shakers in the promotion race.

Heworth are not the only side with a one and three record thus far - but their points difference puts them second bottom. Reversing that trend at second-placed Waterhead next week will need an outstanding home show.