YORK Acorn gave themselves a huge boost after an erratic few weeks on and off the pitch by rattling up their biggest win for some time.

The Blue and Golds hammered Walney Central 74-6 at Thanet Road to stay in touch with the leaders in National Conference League division one and leave the visitors rooted to the foot of the table.

The Cents, with only two wins from 14 games this term, held a crisis meeting last week to discuss whether to stick it out in the Conference in the wake of rotten results. The players duly pledged their commitment to the cause, but only 14 travelled to York and they were either in no mood or simply unable to halt a rush of 13 tries once the floodgates opened.

Indeed, the hosts ended the game as a contest in the first half, going on to lead 34-0 at the interval and doing even better in attack in the second period.

BARLA Great Britain Under-23s winger Jonny Waldron led the rout by racing over for five tries in total, while Andy Lee, controlling the game with aplomb at stand-off, scored a hat-trick.

Darren Callaghan, who was at loose-forward, crossed twice and further touchdowns came from Matt Embleton, Alan Willitts and Steve Irving. Andy Henson put his shooting boots on to add 11 goals to complete the scoring, while Lee McTigue impressed in the pack.

The only blot on Acorn's copybook came three minutes from time when Walney got their sole reply through stand-off Jamie Smith, the former Hull full-back, with half-back partner Brad Nichols converting.

Updated: 11:25 Monday, December 05, 2005