Well established club Widnes - founded in 1875 - were the visitors at Kingston Park, still a relatively new venue rugby league as the home of Newcastle Thunder, on the Monday night championship game televised by Premier Sports The teams drew on their previous meeting and always looked likely too produce a tight game again.

Widnes were the team with the early pressure on the back of a penalty and set restart conceded by the Thunder.

Round Seven of the Betfred Championship 2022 threw up a few surprises as the sides continued to jostle for places in the early season table.

Leigh faced Dewsbury on Friday night in the Premier Sports game while five clashes took place on Sunday ahead of the Monday night televised game between Newcastle and Widnes.

Sunday saw Workington at home to York, Barrow face Batley  and Featherstone at home to Sheffield while Halifax entertained the third Cumbrian side Whitehaven and Bradford travelled down the length of the M1 to play the London Broncos.

An intriguing mid-table Sunday afternoon encounter saw a ninth placed Wakefield Trinity host a Salford Red Devils side occupying sixth spot in the table with a chance to leapfrog the three sides ahead of them and complete round seven in the top half of the table.

Salford were nilled by the Wigan Warriors in the Challenge Cup last weekend while Trinity recorded a second consecutive win over the Warrington Wolves to make progress in that competition and as a result the bookies made the home side the favourites giving the Red Devils a six-point start on the coupon.

It was a day of history at the Eirias Stadium in Colwyn Bay as the North Wales Crusaders welcomed Cornwall RLFC for their first ever fixture after their formation from the ashes of Hemel Stags/Ottawa Aces in 2021.

Under the coaching of the vastly experienced Neil Kelly, the games newest side made the six-hour journey from their base in Penryn to the North Wales Coast for the inaugural fixture having had a bye in the opening round of the League One competition.

The Crusaders got a big win away at Rochdale last week and were strong favourites to spoil the Cornwall party and collect the Celtic Shield.

If there was one certainty in round seven of Super League 2022 it was that the Leeds Rhinos would lose to St Helens, the only real issue being how many points the Rhinos would ship in and whether they would be able to get over the whitewash themselves.

The home side were without the injured Aidan Sezer so Liam Sutcliffe was in the halves alongside Blake Austin while Saints were without Alex Walmsley but there was celebration as James Roby made his 500th career appearance.

In our pre-match Twitter poll, no-one was predicting a Leeds win, most people predicting that Saints would win by 1 to 24 points, and the bookies were giving the Rhinos a fourteen-point start on the coupon.

Both of Thursday night’s sides successfully negotiated their sixth round Challenge Cup games last weekend and came into tonight’s fixture full of confidence as the Wigan Warriors took on the Black & Whites of Hull FC in Round 7 of Super League.

Wigan had Brad Singleton back in the front row, Harry Smith into the half backs, and Bevan French on the bench for his first appearance in eleven months.

FC made a few of changes from the side which beat Sheffield in the cup with Luke Gale, Darnell McIntosh and Josh Bowden all back in the seventeen.

The bookies went with league position giving fifth placed Hull an eight-point start on the handicap coupon over third placed Wigan.

A win for the home side would put them clear at the top before tomorrow’s games, but a win for the visitors would see them above Wigan.

England Wheelchair will face the acid test against France, the reigning world champions, in their Mid-Season International in Manchester this summer.

The Test Match, on Sunday June 19 (KO 3.

45pm) at the Manchester Basketball Centre, will follow the double header for England Men and Women at the Halliwell Jones Stadium the previous day – with all three games shown live on Sky Sports.

For all three England teams, it will be a crucial part of their preparations for the Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair Rugby League World Cups on home soil this autumn – with all three Finals in Manchester on the weekend of November 18-19, kicking off with the Wheelchair Final at Manchester Central on Friday November 18.

Magic Weekend returns to St James’ Park, Newcastle, on 9 & 10 July.

Enjoy a sporting event like no other with a full round of Betfred Super League fixtures taking place from one stadium.

Fans from across the sport will gather in Newcastle to celebrate the start of summer with a festival of Rugby League.

On top of the 6 HUGE clashes including two unrelenting derbies, enjoy exhibition matches, interactive games, and a DJ to bringing the party to life.

Barrow Raiders have proven to be the dark horses of the Championship after their promotion at the end of last season and they will have been relishing their cup draw to take on the might of the Huddersfield Giants ever since the balls came out of the hat a couple of weeks ago.

The Giants were without Will Pryce and Tui Lolohea and therefore gave a rare outing to Leroy Cudjoe in the halves and with Barrow having nothing to lose it was a nervous journey to Cumbria for the Super League side as they looked to avoid the humiliation of a cup shock.

Barrow were given a twenty-six point start on the coupon but they really had nothing to lose in the glorious Cumbrian sunshine as they made their bid for the last eight, and a home game against Hull FC.

Warrington started this home Cup tie as clear favourites to beat Wakefield at home and book a date to welcome Wigan to the Halliwell Jones Stadium in the quarter final.

The bookies had them at 10-3 on for the win, while Trinity were 5-2 - despite beating their hosts in the league last weekend.

Warrington started this home Cup tie as clear favourites to beat Wakefield at home and book a date to welcome Wigan to the Halliwell Jones Stadium in the quarter final.

The bookies had them at 10-3 on for the win, while Trinity were 5-2 - despite beating their hosts in the league last weekend.

Two sides with Wembley appearances in the last couple of seasons met for a mouth-watering sixth round Challenge Cup match as the Leeds Rhinos hosted the Castleford Tigers in what is, in 2022, a battle between two of the sides who are currently nervously looking over their shoulders at the relegation spot.

The Rhinos, under the temporary management of Jamie Jones-Buchanan following the departure of Richard Agar last Monday, were slight favourites to make the most of home advantage and secure progress.

But try telling that to Lee Radford´s Castleford Tigers who came into the game fancying their chances of finishing off the wounded Rhinos.

A loss today would effectively signal the end of the season for one of these two sides, after just six rounds of Super League and one cup match.

The draw for the quarter finals of the 2022 Betfred Challenge Cup was made during the half time interval at the Leeds Rhinos v.

Castleford Tigers sixth round game at Headingley.

The draw was made by two people with great cup pedigree, John Kear and Robbie Hunter-Paul.

There were whoops of joy in Whitehaven when they were drawn at home in the Betfred Challenge Cup against the cup holders St Helens, tempered by the knowledge that they had a snowball´s chance in hell of progressing through to the quarter finals.

Despite their being twenty places between them in the league structure, St Helens reacted to last weeks defeat in Toulouse by putting out a very strong side to make sure that there were no mistakes in their quest for a place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the showpiece final.

Whitehaven were given a fifty-four point start on the coupon and many of the five thousand of so packed into the Recreation Ground were hoping that their Marras side would be able to put up more of a fight or the most optimistic among them even dare to hope for one of the biggest cup upsets of all time.

The Super League sides have entered the Betfred Challenge Cup as we launched full steam ahead into round six with the opening fixture, chosen by Premier Sports for Friday night broadcasting, being an intriguing fixture between the Wigan Warriors and the Salford Red Devils.

Both sides came into tonight’s game on the back of confidence boosting wins last weekend with Wigan defeating the Castleford Tigers and Salford taking the scalp of the Leeds Rhinos, but the bookies thought that there would be only one winner and with the Red Devils getting a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, they were expecting the Cherry & White adorned, nineteen times winners of the famous old trophy, to be the ones making progress.

Leigh Centurions made a Monday evening trip to West Yorkshire with their sights set on second spot as they took on a Halifax Panthers who have had a disappointing start to the season and who find themselves in the bottom half of the table with just one win from their opening five fixtures.

To boost the gate, Halifax were charging just £10 admission, with under 16´s getting free entry under the #PanthersPremierParty branding with the hope of getting a bumper crowd atmosphere with the Premier Sports TV cameras being present.

With the Halifax Panthers and Leigh Centurions chosen for tomorrow night´s Premier Sports match, there were six Betfred Championship matches played on Sunday afternoon, and while two were blow-outs, one game saw the sides separated by two points and incredibly two games were draws.

Workington and Bradford met in the early kick off, with Barrow entertaining London and Whitehaven at home to the Sheffield Eagles as all three sides from Cumbria had home games.

Batley took on the league leading Featherstone, Dewsbury were at home to Newcastle and York played Widnes.

Fresh from their big win over the Leeds Rhinos last weekend, Hull FC were looking to continue their good form as the Huddersfield Giants rolled into town, their eyes on re-joining the pack at the top of the table with a chance that a big win would lift them to the top.

Both sides had been decimated by losses with FC unable to call on the services of Kane Evans, Jamie Shaul and Joe Cator while the Giants were without Theo Fages and Sebastine  Ikahihifo The bookies had made the Giants slight favourites but only offered the Airlie Birds a two-point start in the coupon, the stage was set for a close competition between the sides currently fourth and fifth in the table.

Willie Poching´s Wakefield Trinity were looking for their second win of the season to give themselves some breathing space to the bottom of the table but there are usually fewer more daunting tasks in Super League than having to travel to the Halliwell Jones Stadium to take on Daryl Powell´s Warrington Wolves.

Both sides were missing a number of regular first teamers, the Wolves would be without Greg Minikin, Matt Davis and Josh Charnley while the visitors were missing Bill Tupou, Thomas Minns, Max Jowitt and Tom Lineham.

The bookies believed that there would be only one winner and Wakefield were given a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, the Wolves expected to take the points and move into fifth spot in the table.

In the current disciplinary climate, there were as many questions about how many cards there would be, as there was about the outcome of tonight´s Super League match between the Salford Red Devils and the Leeds Rhinos at the AJ Bell Stadium.

The Red Devils made several changes to their line-up after last week’s loss, with Ryan Lannon and Elijah Taylor amongst the additions to the starting line-up, while the Rhinos welcomed back skipper Kruise Leeming and new signing James Bentley after their suspensions In our pre-game Twitter poll 67% of voters believed that it would be the Red Devils who emerged victorious, and the bookies agreed, giving the visitors a two-point start on the handicap coupon.