Indeed, Hornets were into their swing after just two minutes, when slick handling exposed Batley's soft left centre channel and Chris Giles cut through to score wide out. Kev King missed the conversion- his only miss of the afternoon.

Batley rallied, showing that inside their niggly spoiling machine, there's a half decent footballing side struggling to get out. First Stokes finished a good passing move, then Spears crashed onto a short pass: Hornets finding themselves 10-4 down after just 10 minutes.

It was enough to kick Hornets into life. On the quarter hour, quick hands from Matt Sturm and Phil Hasty slotted Mark McCully in for a well executed try. Hornets were now establishing momentum and, with Batley being forced backwards all over the park, the visitors reverted to type.

As they lay on tackles, probed and pestered, Batley strove to break up Hornets' rhythm. And, for a while it worked. But a hapless grubber into the Hornets in-goal was gathered at pace by Lee 'Pogo' Patterson, who weaved his way through flailing tacklers to sprint 90 metres and score at the opposite end. Fantastic stuff.

While Batley sprawled and scrapped, Hornets played good football around them and Matt Sturm showed good strength and determination to plant the ball over the line as defenders swarmed around him.

With the half ebbing away and Batley looking dead in the water, Hornets again carved open the defensive line. This time Matt Firth and Phil Hasty exchanged passes; Chris Giles the recipient to send Hornets in 28-10 up at the break.

Batley knew they had to score first to gain any foothold in the game. As it was, Phil Hasty took a cheeky drop-goal on Hornets first attack. On the next possession in Batley's half, a lightning sidestep and blistering acceleration from Craig Robinson took him away from defenders for a terrific solo try.

A try from Gallagher gave Batley fans something to cheer, but Hornets' response was immediate. Paul Anderson showed great awareness in traffic to pick a peach of a pass to send Chris Giles in for his hat-trick try.

One minute later, a nicely balanced kick from Matt Firth had Batley in al sorts of trouble and, while Bulldogs defenders watched the ball bobble, Chis Giles swept in for his fourth of the afternoon. Top stuff.

And Hornets pretty much declared, running through the patterns in the closing 15 minutes, pushing Batley back with a series of questioning kicks and forcing them into impotent one man drives.

The petty sin-binning of Lee Doran for deliberate offside with nine minutes remaining gave batley sufficient space to create a consolation try for Stokes, but it was too little too late for a side that was a distant second in this contest.

And so Hornets secured 5th place - a fantastic effort for a club of its size: and given that Darren Abram's entire budget was the size of Halifax's overspend! Indeed, Dazza was a happy man: "When you reflect on the season, you have three full time teams who everyone expected to fight out the top three. Hornets have finished the best of the rest and I think we have got to take great credit for that - my players, my backroom staff, the directors, because it's not been easy."

He went on: "It's been a learning curve this season - and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. WE are building a good team here. Not buying one."

Reward for Hornets' herculean effort is a trip to Whitehaven in the playoffs. And, on this form, we might not be able to book our holidays just yet.