At the end of a difficult week for the club, Spacemen president Graham Cole smiled contentedly and thanked the club’s faithful for a real show of strength as Pat Rosser’s talented outfit flexed their collective muscles.

On a superb day for the Spacemen:

o Luke Clarke booted 15 successive goals, to add to his 10 last week - his 25 successive goals believed to have equalled Darren Dunn’s CRL record from 1996;

o Inspirational hooker Benjamin John scored five of the 16 tries;

o The 94-12 win over last year’s grand finalists was close to Parkes’ best-ever result - a 108-3 drubbing of Forbes in 1983 by Ted Goodwin’s team in a pre-season match with a try worth three points;

o The club scored 226 points to 22 in three games against the Cowboys, who, to be fair, were undermanned in terms of playing roster; and

o The brilliant Dennis Moran again showed the way for his off-field preparation and dedication to the task of contributing to the Spacemen’s back-to-back premiership aspirations.

With prop Rodney Pora a late withdrawal, the Spacemen started full of running to stamp their pronounced superiority on proceedings. They led 18-0 after 12 minutes, extended it to 30-4 after 27 minutes and it was 42-8 at half-time.

The game was all over as a contest as that stage. “We have 85 registered players and only 45 made it to Parkes.

“We had no depth at all and two of juniors backed up in the first grade match,’’ Ray Fabar said of the Cowboys.

“Trent Forest, Corey Stanley and Nathan Thompson were our best in a beaten side.

“But Luke Brydon and Nathan Smith weren’t here so we just lacked the firepower and creativity.’’

PARKES SPACEMEN 94

(Benjamin John 5, Rohan Orcher 2, Luke Clarke 2, Toby Evans 2, Dennis Moran 2, Nick Doig, Marika Korovi, Sam Coster tries; Clarke 15 goals)

WELLINGTON 12

(Corey Stanley, Norm West, Robbie Donn tries)