SKOLARS suffered another heavy bank-holiday defeat, with former coach Tony Benson’s new charges scoring 13 tries.

Two tries for scrum half Thomas Coyle gave an early indication of what was to follow, but Skolars did manage to put in some good work in attack for a while with Dave Ellison and Tony Williams working hard up front.

But when Smokie Junor was sin-binned for holding down in the tackle on 16 minutes, the gaps started to appear in defence. James Coyle followed his brother with two tries of his own, the first an individual effort from 10 metres out, the second backing up Stevie Gibbons’ break. Gibbons got one for himself against his old club, with Andy Ballard and Rob Roberts also touching down.

Skolars managed to get on to the scoreboard when Paul Thorman’s cross-field kick was seemingly ignored by the Oldham defence, with Matt Thomas slipping through to score.

Tries either side of the break for Andy Ballard and Paul O’Connor saw the half century notched up for the visitors. Matt Thomas added a second try after stealing the ball 20 metres out and racing to the line. Neil Roden scored soon afterwards for Oldham but then Skolars' defence started to tighten again and it was 20 minutes before Oldham scored again after Danny Burke and Matt Thomas had both just failed to get to a kick into the in-goal area. The last 10 minutes saw another three tries, with Craig Robinson, Roden and Lucas Onyango all getting on to the scoreboard. Andy Ballard kicked everyone of his 13 conversion attempts, to finish with 34 points.

Skolars have a break this weekend before a trip to Workington on the 17th.

ANDREW JACKSON