Round 8 of the Betfred Championship got underway with Oldham hosting Bradford at Boundary Park on Friday night.
A confident Bulls outfit always led – with a Waqa Blake hat-trick helping the visitors to a superb victory, as they ran in eight tries against the Roughyeds.
Home fans at Olympic Legacy Park were celebrating on Friday, as Sheffield earned their first home win of the season in emphatic fashion.
Batley Bulldogs visited the South Yorkshire city in Round 8 – and a dominant Eagles racked up nine tries over their opponents – and started as they meant to go on with a Ryan Millar breakaway score in the opening minute of the match.
After controlling the game and batting off bouts of Batley pressure, a blitz of tries from Reiss Butterworth, Cory Aston and Tyler Dickinson in the closing stages rounded off a fantastic win.
On Saturday, Toulouse proved too strong for Featherstone, despite an attempted second half comeback from the Rovers.
Sunday’s action then saw York Knights come out on top against Widnes at the LNER Community Stadium.
Mark Applegarth’s men returned to winning ways and also leapfrogged the Vikings in the Championship table with a victory in Round 8.
It was an entertaining encounter as York ran in tries from skipper Liam Harris, Connor Bailey, Joe Brown and Ata Hingano, as well as Ben Jones-Bishop's score on the hooter. Widnes had replied through Mike Butt and Ryan Ince.
Halifax Panthers bounced back from their Round 7 defeat with a strong win over London.
The Panthers scored 34 unanswered points, before London finally responded on the 60th minute. This result sees ‘Fax maintain their place at the top of the table and two points clear of Barrow Raiders in second.
Finally, there was a thriller over in Cumbria as Barrow and Doncaster clashed at the Northern Competitions Stadium.
The Dons were clinical the first half and led at the break thanks to an Edene Gebbie brace, a Reece Lyne try and a Craig Hall drop goal.
Andrew Bulman and Tee Ritson were scorers for the Raiders in the first forty, although trailed seven points at half-time.
Curtis Teare then became the star man for Barrow as the hosts went on to complete a second half fightback.
Teare went over on the 44th minute to give his side hope, followed by Ryan King who burrowed his way over to put the hosts in front for the very first time.
Lyne secured his brace for Doncaster, but Teare produced the match-winner with minutes to spare, as the Raiders continue to thrive in 2025.
Betfred Championship Round 8 results:
Oldham 12 Bradford Bulls 42
Sheffield Eagles 50 Batley Bulldogs 18
Featherstone Rovers 10 Toulouse Olympique 18
York Knights 26 Widnes Vikings 12
Halifax Panthers 40 London Broncos 12
Barrow Raiders 24 Doncaster 19
The full fixture list for the Betfred Championship can be found here.
Photo Credit: Sheffield Eagles
