Egremont Rangers are starting to see some clear water as they continue their upwards progress in National Conference Premier.

They now have a three-point gap on the three relegation places with a fourth side two points behind them.

The latest win, 38-16 at Pilkington Recs, was one of the most important of recent times, as their hosts are one of the relegation-threatened sides.

Egremont had led 10-0 at the break after a hard-fought first half. They broke the deadlock with a try by Callum Aitken and extended the advantage with a touchdown by player-coach John Paul Brocklebank. Matty Bewsher converted one of them.

That lead grew by the hour mark as Matty Henson and Brocklebank both crossed and Bewsher added the extras.

The home side reduced the arrears with a couple of converted tries but when Marcus O'Brien crossed, Egremont had a handy 26-12 lead.

The home side weren’t helped by a sin-binning for Ryan Hilliard 10 minutes from time and immediately Brocklebank raced over to complete his hat-trick.

Jake Hodson scored a third try for the home side but Egremont finished strongly and Tom Horner scored the seventh and final try. Bewsher added his fifth goal.

Wath Brow Hornets, keen to make amends for last week’s 50-point drubbing at West Hull, were just short of the half-century mark at home to Wigan St Patrick’s.

It finished 48-12 and keeps the Brow in pole position to finish second in the table.

Hornets started positively and were 10-0 up in as many minutes through tries from Charlie Tomlinson and Karl Dixon, one of them converted by Connor Teare.

The visitors got back to 18-12 with two tries from Jamie Winstanley-Bristoe (2) and Tyler Spence.

But the Brow were in no mood to hang about and, by half-time, had pulled out a 24-12 lead. Fran King, Dixon and Mark Watson all got over the St Pat’s line.

There was only one question in the second half really – how many the Brow were going to win by?

In fact they doubled their score, adding tries by Jamie Devine, Jordan O’Leary (2) and Nathan Lucock.

Teare added two more goals and there was also one from Peter Caddy.

Kells were still unable to beat their bogey side Rochdale Mayfield. Two seasons in the top flight have yielded four straight defeats.

Latest was a close one, 20-18, to the visitors after Kells had come through to lead 12-10 early in the second half.

The Rochdale side had led 10-6 at the break with a try from former Swinton star Wayne English, plus three goals by Lewis Sheridan.

Lewis Wilson had crossed before the break for Kells with Ryan Doran converting.

Peter Smith’s team took the lead early in the second half with a try by Grant McLaughlin, converted by Doran.

But Mayfield hit back to lead 20-12 with a second try for English, another from Matty Chimes and a fourth goal from Sheridan.

Kells battled hard to make inroads and, five minutes from time, Dan Joyce crossed for their third try, converted by Doran.

Some heavy late Kells pressure failed to produce the breakthrough that probably they deserved.