WIDNES were blown away in a first-half whirlwind as they went down 30-12 to local rivals Warrington Wolves at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The league leaders played the game at a hectic pace in the opening 40 minutes which proved too hot for Denis Betts’ men to handle.

To their credit, at no stage did Widnes throw in the towel and they enjoyed the better of the second half scoring. They had just left themselves too big a mountain to climb.

The opening stages were evenly contested with the first clear cut chance coming the Vikings way.

It came as Rhys Hanbury sent centre Charly Runciman racing away but failed to take his return pass with the line begging.

As often seems to happen, the opposition went straight up the other end and opened the scoring when Chris Hill burst clear from thirty metres to score by the posts. Kurt Gidley’s conversion made it 6-0.

The Wolves work out of dummy-half was exceptional and Widnes were having to scramble.

The Vikings luffed another chance when winger Patrick Ah Van couldn’t pull in Hanbury’s difficult high pass with the line open.

Gidley added a simple penalty to increase his side’s lead and a further six points were added when Australian prop Ashton Sims latched onto a grubber kick into the in-goal to make it 14-0.

Warrington were now flying and after making more progress up the left, youngster Morgan Smith wriggled over from dummy-half for his side’s third try. Gidley’s superb touchline conversion gave the Wolves a 20-0 half-time lead.

Tony Smith’s men had an early chance to increase their lead after the break but Toby King’s pass went astray.

The Vikings finally got on the scoreboard when Joe Mellor and Matt Whitely combined on the right-hand side with the former taking a return pass before racing under the posts against his hometown club.

Corey Thompson added the simple goal and and Widnes continued to press.

However, a Hanbury mistake conceded field-position and from the resulting pressure Wolves winger Matty Russell scored wide out to make it 30-6.

The Vikings had the consolation of scoring the final try of the night when Hanbury’s long pass allowed Thompson to dive in with Lloyd White adding the extras from wide out.

Warrington: Ratchford; Russell, T King, Atkins, R Evans; Gidley, Patton; Hill, Dwyer, Sims, Currie, Hughes, G King. Subs: Wilde, Smith, Philbin, Bailey.

Widnes: Hanbury; Thompson, Dean, Runciman, Marsh; Mellor, Brown; Burke, White, Buchanan, Whitley, Houston, Cahill. Subs: J Chapelhow, Dudson, Heremaia, Farrell.

Half-Time: 20-0 Referee: Mr G Hewer Attendance: 10,488