THE BARLA National Cups brought little cheer for the teams from the area as both Walney Central under-16s and Askam under-14s bowed out.

Walney made the 300-mile round trip to Wakfield Hawks missing three players and with seven under-15s in the team, facing a side who included five Castleford Tigers scholarship players and a further three from Wakefield Trinity.

Walney put in a battling display, with Zac Whitehead, Matty Henderson and Arnie Luxon their star men, but found themselves 12-0 down to the Hawks at half time.

The hosts went 18-0 up early in the second half, but Cents hit back when good play from Lewis Askew, Toby Wilson, and Kian Goode led to Luke Broadbent putting the speedy Ryan Wilson through to score, which was impressively converted by Broadbent.

The game became more physical and Hawks managed to force their way through for another try, only for Walney to respond again when Whitehead dived over in the corner.

However, Hawks had the final say and made the score 26-10.

Even so, the visitors took plenty of encouragement from the match for the rest of the 2019 season.

Elsewhere, Askam suffered a 76-0 defeat at home to Saddleworth Rangers.