HEWORTH ARLC battled hard against a strong Normanton Knights side but still fell to a 26-6 defeat.

The Villagers struggled in the face of a strong wind and driving rain, and Knights took advantage of the conditions to record this National Conference division two triumph.

Heworth fell behind after only seven minutes when good passing along the line allowed Normanton winger Andrew Greaves to score an unconverted try.

Greaves struck again after 23 minutes when Heworth were caught napping and, six minutes later, the Villagers were 14-0 behind when some good approach play allowed full-back Michael Butterfield to link cleverly into the line and take a flat pass through a gap to score - the try converted by Michael Hill.

Heworth scored first in the second half, reducing the deficit to 14-6 on 57 minutes, when Carl Potter scored on the last tackle and converted.

But Heworth's joy at getting on the scoreboard lasted just a minute. Failing to deal with the kick-off allowed Greaves to score his hat-trick.

When his fourth try came, seven minutes from time, Heworth were already beaten but Knights' centre Chris Lewis rubbed salt into the wound on full-time.

A good break by Heworth winger Gavin Grant almost put fellow winger Mike Welsh over, but the Normanton defence got back and went straight up the other end with Lewis touching down the home side's sixth try of the afternoon.

Heworth's Sam Clarke and fellow prop Gary Endersby tackled hard while full-back Chris Smith worked tirelessly to keep the visitors in the game but to no avail.