HALTON continue to ride the crest of a wave.

The home side stamped their authority and stand-off Macintosh, who went on to have an excellent game, chipped forward.

The ball sat up invitingly in the Douglas 22 and centre Parker outstripped the visiting defence, maintaining his balance long enough to push the ball over the Douglas line for winger Leadbetter to bag an opportunist try. The angle proved too acute for full-back Mellor, who missed the conversion.

With poor underfoot conditions, the Halton pack struggled against their betterdrilled counterparts but at no stage shied away from the contest.

The home forwards secured a lot of possession, albeit not the most controlled.

And half-backs Shingler and Macintosh launched the highly effective Halton back line for attack after attack.

It was only a matter of time before Halton began to rack up the scores.

Macintosh took a short ball 20 yards out to ghost in just right of the sticks, Mellor tagging on the extras.

Left-winger Kelly benefited from an express pass from the impressive Parker to beat three covering defenders in a blistering race to the line.

Mellor again converted but the visitors threatened to spoil the party by scoring an unconverted try.

However, this only served to galvanise Widnes.

Full-back Mellor picked up a loose ball 30 yards from the Douglas line. Showing of speed of thought and movement, he beat four tacklers before drifting an inch-perfect pass for second-row Bibby to cross at the corner.

Shingler dummied from a ruck to lay on a second try for Kelly and Parker gave a beautifully timed pass for midfield colleague Curphey to cross.

Halton lost Macintosh with a dislocated finger with 15 minutes left and the visitors used their numerical superiority to score two more tries, one converted.

But Halton had done enough, with Mellor capping a good performance with four conversions.