Broncos tamed by Dewsbury

Dewsbury 12 London Broncos 1

Dewsbury, next to bottom of the First Division last season, knocked Super League-bound opposition out of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup at a snow-covered Crown Flatt last night as London warmed to their task too late.

With such a preponderance of players from the southern hemisphere it was to be half expected that London would struggle to come to terms with the conditions. That was certainly the case in the early stages, when their frequent surrendering of possession allowed Dewsbury to exert the pressure that brought the first try, when Barry Eaton's kick bounced conveniently for Danny Mc-Kelvie to follow up and score.

Eaton kicked the conversion and also added a penalty to emphasise Dewsbury's superiority after Mark Cocks had been held down by Tony Rea. Another penalty, for offside, allowed Eaton to take the lead into double figures before half-time.

A team sensing an upset on the way did extract another two points, however, kicked by Eaton after Scott Roskell had thrown a punch.

London showed their first signs of coming to grips with the game when Kevin Langer burrowed over from dummy-half. Terry Matterson kicked the goal and London, spearheaded by some elusive play from Duncan McRea, put Dewsbury under far more pressure than they had done previously. With 12 minutes left Bernard Carroll pinned his ears back to the side of his tattooed skull and scored from Steve Rosolen's pass.

Matterson missed with the conversion, Rea had a try disallowed for a forward pass and Dewsbury hung on.

Dewsbury: Van Wyk; Moore, Coombe (Austerfield, 54), Bramald, North; Austerfield (Cocks, 26), Eaton; Bell, Haigh, McKelvie (Williams, 60), Pratt, Williams (Bates, 20), Lingard.

London Broncos: McRea; Dynevor, Roskell, Evans, Carroll; Matterson, Langer; Shaw, Rea (Riley, 49), Pitt (Smith, 28), Bryant (Rea, 68), Keating, Rosolen.

Referee: K Kirkpatrick (Warrington).