York Acorn fostered their outside promotion ambitions with another must-win game in the bag at East Leeds.

The 14-34 win keeps them in touch with National Conference division one leaders West Hull with five games in hand and ten points to make up.

And, if the mountain of fixtures yet to play in Acorn's schedule does not prove insurmountable, they could well find themselves plying their rugby in the premier division next season.

Saturday's win came with Kyle Palmer as a key figure with a try-double plus setting up winger John Hough for another as Acorn romped to a 14-0 half-time lead and 30-4 advantage after an hour.

Michael Embleton, Johnny Waldron and loose forward Fran Starkey all topped up the Acorn scoresheet with stand-off Andy Gargan goaling three times.

East Leeds responded with a flurry of activity as Johnny Carter, Jimmy Pryor and Steve Parnell made Russ Simpson's try less of a consolatory effort but Embleton steamed in with his second of the match in the dying minutes to seal the win.

Heworth remain within touching distance of the National Conference division two re-election zone after strong resistance was not quite strong enough to halt the charge of second-placed Widnes St Maries.

The Villagers notched up a couple of points from a Mike Welsh penalty with the score already two tries in the Widnes side's favour.

But they failed to add more to them as St Maries ran away with a 22-2 win - despite immense performances from the pack with Wayne Foster, Will Neary and Joe Murphy all strong in defence to restrict Widnes to just one second half try.

Heavy conditions conspired against Heworth as they took on one of the best sides in the league but there was plenty to be taken from the match.

Spokesman Ken Sykes said: "There were a lot of mistakes but we played with a lot of honest endeavour.

"They've got the best attack and defence in the league so it was a performance we can't be too disappointed with.

"The score was 18-2 at half-time and they only scored one in the second half which is something to be pleased about."

The exceptional Widnes stand-off Mike Gill opened the scoring, and Matty Viggars, Steve Riley and hooker Anthony Hollins all crossed before the end of the first 40 minutes, with Dave Walsh adding the only conversion of the day.

Heworth then dug in as they consistently batted away the Maries' attack in the second half with Gill getting the only points in a match that was a far cry from the 66-4 away trip earlier in the season.

Updated: 10:44 Monday, March 27, 2006