Stand-off Ben Stelmaszek scored a hat-trick as Chester Gladiators hammered Manchester Rangers 46-6 to stay top of North West Men's League Division Four at The Cheshire County Sports Club.
Rangers have ambitions of moving into the professional game and are a much improved outfit but found themselves 16-0 down early on as Gladiators made a blistering start.
Chris Jones, Jones Rae and Stelmaszek powered over for tries with half-back Aled Davies landing two from three conversion.
Manchester stemmed the flow of points and the game settled into a physical battle although Stelmaszek, who had an excellent game, crossed for another score before half-time as Chester went in leading 22-0.
The second-half began slowly with Gladiators continuing to engage the forwards through the middle rather than attack the fringes, where they had found success.
Chester eventually moved further ahead with fullback Cameron Hogg crashing over for two tries and Davies converting both to make the score 34-0.
Gladiators began to play with more freedom in the final 20 minutes with winger Lee Thomas collecting Davies' clever kick to score and Stelmaszek completing his hat-trick.
Manchester kept going and got themselves on the board late on with a converted try to make the final score 46-6.
Head coach David Kirby said afterwards: "The lads were fired up last weekend as Manchester had done a lot of talking midweek on social media suggesting they were going to beat us.
"I thought Damien Tierney, Cameron Hogg and Ben Stelmaszek were fantastic but I still feel we have a lot more developing to do as a team. We seem to go quiet every game for about 30 minutes.
"We can't afford to accept winning as a success we have to strive for perfection. I have started giving the players individual goals before a match to help them improve and they are all working hard to achieve them."
