Heworth'S poor start to the Arriva Trains Conference division two campaign continued as they lost 38-16 to Normanton Knights at Elm Park Way.

The Villagers gave another relatively poor performance against the side coached by Bradford Bulls' Great Britain prop Paul Anderson, although they did fight back in the second half after trailing 30-6 at the break.

Heworth spokesman Ken Sykes said: "We won the second half and played much better after the interval so it was not all doom and gloom but nonetheless it was another defeat.

"Our tackling was not up to scratch in the first half as they got six tries and we were pretty much out of it at that stage."

Normanton went ahead on two minutes as stand-off Lee Maskill ghosted in and by the half-hour mark the visitors had crossed four more times though Jason Blockley after a swerving run, Damian Ashurst after quick passing, Matthew Lowe from a long pass, and Kevin Bateman, who walked in down the blind side.

One of Heworth's better players, loose-forward Wayne Foster, got the hosts on the scoreboard when he latched on to a good passing movement for Carl Potter to convert.

However, a spell of home pressure which followed reaped no rewards and Normanton crossed again before the break through Dale Harrison.

Lee Aspinall had converted two tries and Ben Cockayne one and the latter added a penalty after the break before Sam Clark set up Nathan Witty to pull a try back.

An unstoppable charge by substitute Will Neary brought him a 65th-minute try and another conversion for Potter, but, despite a few more chances for the Villagers, Normanton had the last word with an interception try, Maskill going 50 yards then handing on to Paul Greaves. Aspinall converted to end the scoring.

York Acorn were put to the sword by Ince Rosebridge, who gave the Blue and Golds no respite on their way to a 58-22 win. also in the Arriva Trains second division.

Acorn did not perform as well as they can, especially in defence where they missed too many tackles to hand the initiative to their Wigan-based hosts, who were more than capable of taking advantage.

Acorn twice went close twice in the opening five minutes only to be thwarted by resolute defending.

But Acorn were then cut apart when several missed tackles allowed Ince prop Andy Eatock to touch down for a try goaled by scrum-half Kelvin Peet.

Acorn were still reeling minutes later when quick hands out wide saw winger Liam Davies cross for a converted try.

By the mid-point of the first half, Ince had cruised into a 16-0 lead which, on the half-hour, became 22-0 following a fine solo try by stand-off Damien Cleary to which Peet added the extras.

Just before half-time Acorn finally sprung a tight defence when good interplay between centre Mike Embleton and winger Jon Waldron saw the latter cross for a try which full back Kevin Brundrett goaled.

Any hopes of a stirring fightback were thwarted at the start of the second half when Ince crossed for a converted score to move 28-6 ahead.

The try Acorn wanted at the start of the second half came three minutes later when Waldron crossed for an unconverted score. But Ince then hit another points-scoring purple patch that saw them cross for four converted scores in a 20-minute period.

Facing a 52-10 deficit, Acorn showed some spirit to rally late on and they crossed for two converted scores through Acorn's best forward, James Morrow, and hard-working centre Embleton, Brundrett adding the extras.

In between these scores, Acorn's defence was breached once more as Ince reached the 58-point mark with another converted score.

Only stand-off Paddy Handley, the Blue and Golds' best player, winger Waldron and substitute second-rower Morrow came out with any real praise.

Updated: 12:17 Monday, September 15, 2003