** Report by Mike Critchley - St.Helens Star **

RECS did themselves and amateur rugby league proud with a determined and skilful display that had the professionals rocking and relieved to hear the final whistle.

The City Road men have a magnificent Challenge Cup tradition to defend – but the 709 spectators who braved the bitterly cold wind were given a nudge that the spirit in the red, amber and black jersey is not confined to history books about the 1970s.

It was nip and tuck throughout and had a few marginal forward passes been spotted, specifically the one that put the Bulldogs up at the break, Pilks could have been joining Saints in the bag for last Monday’s draw.

It was not just about pluck, enthusiasm and tenacity, which Recs had in spades, but skill, nous and vision which helped craft four well taken touchdowns.

Three of those tries fell to pacy full back Mark Ashton – all created courtesy of the boot of scheming Ste Rawsthorne.

The Recs skipper was shunted to the half back role when his brother Andy suffered the big match heartache of pulling a hamstring on the pitch in the warm up.

Rawsthorne and the rangy Ryan Rogers combined well at halfback, asking questions of the Bulldogs defence with some smart passing, running and kicking.

Batley were first on the scoresheet when hooker Kris Lythe zipped under the posts from a training ground move, converted by Mark Barlow, but Recs stuck at it.

Any fears that they were going to suffer the 88-0 fate that higher ranked amateurs Saddleworth had been dealt at Widnes the previous day were soon dispelled.

Although prop Neil Morris was just held up after a burst to the line, moments later strong running centre Nigel Pratt sliced through for a try goaled by Rawsthorne.

Batley’s size, speed and a succession of penalties allowed them to get on a roll and they rocked Recs with three tries in quick succession – all disappointingly scored at the end of the sets.

Kevin Crouthers, Danny Maun and Chris Buttery all crossed, but thankfully the strong wind ensured that they remained only four-pointers.

There was no white flag being waved by the City Roaders, who showed a fair bit of flair when Rawsthorne’s delicate chip outsmarted the Bulldogs defence for Ashton to race over on 28 minutes.

Cool-headed Rawsthorne made a mockery of the swirling wind to curl in a great conversion, cutting the deficit to 12-18.

Then the Rawsthorne and Ashton double-act worked again two minutes before the break with the full back touching down again to provoke an exuberant celebration from the rest of the team. Rawsthorne’s goal equalised matters and that would have been a good time to blow the hooter.

Unfortunately well-travelled centre Dale Cardoza rounded off a width of the pitch handling movement, featuring a brace of unnoticed forward passes, on the stroke half time, to cross out on the right.

Although Batley’s Ian Preece went over for a try scruffily converted by George Flanagan five minutes after the restart, Recs seemed unfazed.

And with Bulldogs a man down, with Maun flat-out with a neck injury, Rawsthorne exposed their defensive frailties with another clever kick wide, which after a number of stabs was eventually gathered and grounded by Ashton.

What followed was a 10 minute delay whilst Maun was carried off with a neck injury, before Rawsthorne added the conversion to make it 24-28.

The spell allowed the rattled Yorkshiremen to regroup – and although Recs threw plenty at the visitors in the last quarter, they could find no further chink in the armour.

They also had to do plenty of tackling on their own line, and the line was only finally breached in the closing stages when Lythe twisted over from dummy half.

Although backs Ashton, Rawsthorne and Rogers all put in a stake for the man of the match, the pack featuring strong performances from Andy Burns and John Rees also punched well above its weight.

Although they will be disappointed not to have made it through, they gave a performance they can be proud of, one which can hopefully spur them on to success in the North West Counties Premier Division.

Pilkington Recs: Ashton; Rigby, Pratt, Lyons, Lacey; Rogers, Ste Rawsthorne; Morris, Cahalin, Rafferty, Rees, Shaw, Burns. Subs: Mason, Lynch, Loughlin. Parr.

Batley: Preece; McGilvray, Cardoza, Maun, Browne, Barlow, Mennell, Stenchion, Lythe, Smith, Buttery, Crouthers, Gallagher. Subs: Lindsay, Watson, Potter, Flanagan.

PILKINGTON RECS hat-trick hero Mark Ashton had mixed emotions after the St Helens amateurs were defeated 24-34 by semi-professional outfit Batley in the Challenge Cup third round.

The full back was named man of the match after crossing the whitewash three times at Saints’ GPW Recruitment stadium as the men from City Road threatened to pull off a famous victory.

Afterwards, 24-year-old Ashton said: “All the boys are really distraught that we got beat, even the Batley coach came in afterwards and admitted the better side lost.  

“The game just drifted away from us in the closing stages. (But) We had been well drilled in training all week and played really well.”

All of Ashton’s tries came as a result of skipper Ste Rawsthorne’s attacking kicks and the Recs number one was quick to salute his team-mate.

He added: “I’ve been playing with Ste since we were juniors and we link up like that every week because we know each other’s games so well.

“We were guilty of letting in a few tries on the last tackle and just ended up waiting for them which cost us really.

“But I have to say I thought in the build up to the try they scored just before half time there were two forward passes.

“The long break (after a Batley player suffered a neck injury) in the second half when we had just scored was difficult because the lads were all really buzzing because we had closed the gap.

“I think that enabled them to have a rest and it cost us really.”

“But there’s always next year and at least I’ll be able to tell people I scored a Challenge Cup hat-trick.”