SCOTT Blanch has taken a stranglehold on the Group 4 Best and Fairest Award after another three-point game at Jack Woolaston Oval.
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The livewire utility star also crossed for two more tries in Sunday's 80-4 demolition of Narrabri Blue to take his try-scoring season tally to 20.
He leads West Lions pivot Sam Taylor on both the B&F table and tryscoring table, with Taylor amassing 16 tries so far after he also notched a try-double in Sunday's 98-18 win over Armidale Rams.
Taylor didn't poll any points in the B&F and sits on 10, seven adrift of Blanch.
The Tamworth farmer has been electric all season in and around the ruck and needs no invitations to slice through a staggered defence as Sam Sadler and his Narrabri teammates found out on a couple of occasions last Sunday. At one stage Sadler, one of the Blues' best, rushed up out of the line, failed to trap Blanch with the ball, and the number nine was off in another jinking arcing run to the tryline.
"It's the best we've played," Blanch told The Leader after Sunday's 76-point thrashing.
Nothing comes easy though and that brick wall defence was built on plenty of hard work on the training paddock.
While Blanch has skipped clear in the B&F and tryscoring tables West Lions utility Phil Beaton earned a deserving three points in the B&F against Armidale Rams last Sunday. Beaton will be an on-field leader for the Lions when they tackle Narrabri at Collins Park, a ground that has been a graveyard for West sides over the year.
Norths host Oxley Diggers at Jack Woolaston Oval this Sunday. With just four rounds left, the Diggers must beat Norths and hope Narrabri lose at home to draw within a point of the Blues in a battle for fourth.
G4 FIRST GRADE: North Tamworth 21, West Lions 15, Gunnedah 14, Narrabri 10, Oxley Diggers 7, Armidale Rams 0.
GROUP 4 BEST & FAIREST AWARD (Unofficial) 17: Scott Blanch (North Tamworth); 10: Sam Taylor (West Lions); 9: Hayden Smith (Gunnedah); 8: Tom Flanders, Sam Schiffman (Oxley Diggers); 7: Callum Hayne (G), Kialu Brown, Daniel Howe (Narrabri); 6: Jake McManus (NT), Phil Beaton, Chris Hunt, Dylan Lake (WL), Danny Read (G), Tim Coombes (OD); 5: Trent Hilton, Jordan Mulherin (G), Lachlan Cameron, Nathan Harvey (N); 4: Steve Coleman, Moses Malual (Armidale Rams), Nic Dobson (NT); 3: Abel Carney, James Duchatel (NT), Keegan Loughrey (G); 2: Jacob Nichols (N), Laurie Craig, Aaron Fox, Aaron Morris, Jayden Smith (AR), Matt Lillicrap (WL), Jarrod Denman (OD), Luke Byrnes (NT), Ben Gardner (G); 1: Kieran Fisher, Dan Boland, Bill Jeffery, Brock Wadwell, Shane Wadwell (NT), Dylan Smith (G), Luke Cox, Sean Nean, Zachary Nigro, Billy Windsor (WL), Brad Flanders (OD, Sam Collett (AR).
