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Hull weathered a second-half fight back from Castleford to win a thrilling game at The Jungle.
The Tigers must be wondering how they lost after they dominated for long spells, but they were 12-4 down at half-time and missed a string of chances.
They failed to build on a flying start. Lee Harland was held on his back over the line before Mitch Healey went in from a pass by his half-back partner Danny Orr.
Hull missed a chance when former Castleford winger Chris Smith failed to take Graham Mackay's pass with the line open.
But they snatched the lead in the 10th minute when hooker Lee Jackson capitalised on a kick from scrum-half Jason Smith to score a try that Matt Crowther converted.
Nathan Sykes and Healey made the opening for Castleford hooker Wayne Bartrim to go over but the effort was ruled out for a double movement after referee Ian Smith consulted a touch judge.
The Tigers were out of luck again when Barrie Jon-Mather got over the try-line but had the ball snatched out of his grasp by Hull's Mackay.
Hull made it 12-4 in the 39th minute when another kick from skipper Smith resulted in winger Gareth Raynor scoring a try. Crowther tagged on his second goal.
In the second half a penalty goal by Bartrim was cancelled out by Crowther who restored Hull's eight-point advantage.
However, the Tigers set up a nailbiting finish when they reduced the arrears to two points when Bartrim sent Orr in for a try that Bartrim goaled.
Castleford piled on the pressure in the closing stages and looked capable of grabbing a late win.
But Hull made sure of their first victory at the ground since 1991 when centre Toa Kohe-Love grabbed an 85-metre interception try a minute from time after snapping up a pass from Castleford's Harland.
© SportingLife.com 2002
Castleford Tigers survived a late London Broncos surge to pick up their second victory of the season at Griffin Park.
The visitors looked to be coasting home until Nigel Roy touched down three minutes from time to set up a grandstand finish.
And only a timely intervention from Barrie-John Mather, collecting Jim Dymock's kick over his own line in the dying seconds, prevented the Broncos from completing what would have been a remarkable comeback.
The game started well for the Broncos who opened the scoring after six-weeks away from Griffin Park inside the opening four minutes.
Steve Hall's 70-metre run set up a chance for Tony Martin to cross the line from close range before he converted his own try from the touchline.
The Broncos had another effort ruled out on 10 minutes before Castleford's Darren Rogers applied the finishing touch to Michael Eagar's kick.
Wayne Bartrim levelled the scores with a conversion.
The game was half an hour old and the Tigers took the lead for the first time with Danny Orr touching down after Mitch Healey had kicked into open space.
Rogers then raced the length of the field after intercepting Dymock's pass two minutes before half-time. Bartrim's conversion gave his side a 10-point lead at the break.
Waine Pryce and Mather both had tries ruled out before Bartrim added a 62nd minute penalty with team-mate Dean Sampson in the sin bin for interference.
The Broncos pulled themselves back into the game on 64 minutes when Michael Gillett burst through the Castleford defence before offloading to Russell Bowden who crossed the whitewash. Martin then added the goal.
Martin added a 72nd minute penalty to reduce the arrears to just four points only to see Lee Harland touch down from Bartrim's kick from dummy half. Bartrim then added the conversion.
The visitors looked to be well on their way to victory until Roy gave the home side a glimmer of hope with a try converted by Martin, but somehow Cas managed to hang on to both points.
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Sections of the Leeds support called for coach Daryl Powell's sacking on Friday night after watching their side crash to a fourth Super League defeat in five games.
The Rhinos were taken apart by a lively Castleford side at Headingley and may live to regret their decision to play with five players missing due to Great Britain call-ups.
Powell now needs his returning quintet to shake off their jetlag and the disappointment of their Test hammering by Australia quickly to prevent the club's season from disintegrating.
A Tigers side well-marshalled by Danny Orr and Wayne Bartrim proved too strong for a youthful Rhinos team and Kiwi Michael Smith was inspired in the second row.
And to make matters worse for Leeds, talented youngster Rob Burrow was stretchered off with a suspected broken leg in the second half.
But it was the Tigers who who started sluggishly as Leeds capitalised on the early sin-binning of Lee Harland for dissent.
Loose forward Harland thought he had opened the scoring but started to argue when he found he had been penalised by referee Steve Ganson. A ten-yard penalty developed into a card as he continued to complain.
Leeds took full advantage five minutes later when Adrian Vowles sliced open the defence to score under the posts.
The former Tigers captain should have had a second minutes later but spilled a difficult pass with the line at his mercy.
Instead, the return of Harland saw Castleford camp for some time on the Leeds line and although the Rhinos defended well they were finally breached in the 21st minute.
Darren Rogers was the man to break through when he gathered his own kick ahead to touch down. Wayne Bartrim missed a comfortable kick to leave Leeds 6-4 in front.
Ten minutes later, Castleford were 10 points clear after two quick tries.
First Smith scampered sideways across the Leeds defence before spotting a hole and darting through and the Kiwi forward then provided a pass for Kyle Warren to race in.
Winger John Wells broke a weak tackle from Francis Cummins to add Castleford's fourth try, with Bartrim adding a third successful kick to give the Tigers a 22-6 advantage.
Wells increased Leeds' agony five minutes into the second half as Castleford continued to dominate a dispirited Leeds side.
And things got even worse for Powell when Burrow was carried off.
Waine Pryce darted down the blind side to stretch the lead to 30-6 before Leeds staged a late rally with teenager Danny McGuire running in two well-taken tries.
Bartrim landed a penalty and the final blow for shell-shocked Leeds was the sight of McGuire being helped off the pitch.
Even a late try from Matt Diskin could not prevent the Headingley crowd from streaming away before the end.
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Dave Furner's penalty five minutes from time helped Wigan snatch a draw and prevent Castleford registering a third successive Super League win for the first time in almost two years.
Wigan, whose third place in Super League was cemented by the draw, have now avoided defeat in five meetings with the Tigers since coach Stuart Raper left Castleford for Wigan in May 2001.
Wigan had looked destined for defeat after battling back from 10 points down to take a six-point lead, only to allow Castleford back into the game.
Tigers' stand-off Danny Orr kicked through from 40 metres and won a thrilling chase to the touch-down and Wayne Bartrim's conversion edged the home side two points ahead with 13 minutes remaining.
That touchdown was registered when Wigan, who went into the match deprived of Julian O'Neill, Andrew Farrell, Paul Johnson, Kris Radlinski, David Hodgson, and Brett Dallas, were down to 12 men following the sin-binning of full-back Gary Connolly for holding down.
Wigan had previous lost influential Adrian Lam, who had been carried off after a late tackle by Castleford prop Dean Sampson.
Wigan however, put that set-back behind them when Terry Newton crossed early in the second half with a touchdown for David Furner to convert and give them the lead. Furner extended that advantage with a try of his own soon after.
Castleford, however, could feel aggrieved at the decision to allow Furner's late penalty, Orr penalised for punching Wigan prop Terry O'Connor in retaliation.
Castleford had shot into their early lead with a sixth-minute touchdown for impressive winger Jon Wells, who pounced on a cross kick by Orr. Bartrim failed with the touchline conversion attempt.
Wells extended the lead, finishing off fine approach work by loose-forward Lee Harland, Orr and Mitch Healey. Bartrim added the extras from the touchline.
Wigan, however, hit back with a try for Martin Aspinwall in their first serious attack and reduced the deficit when Furner, who had been unable to convert, landed a long-range penalty after Bartrim was penalised for a high tackle on O'Connor.
© SportingLife.com 2002
Champions and league leaders Bradford Bulls celebrated two years of Super League invincibility in home games with a seven-try victory over the depleted Tigers.
This was the Bulls' 27th successive home win in Super League since they lost 28-26 to Leeds at Odsal in July 2000.
The win was convincing in the end but for long spells in the first half they struggled to find their touch and could only manage two tries by full back Michael Withers and hooker James Lowes, one of which followed a disputed forward pass.
Bradford scrum-half Paul Deacon kicked six goals from seven attempts and became the first player to reach the century mark in Super League matches this season.
Castleford missed half a dozen regulars, notably forward trio Dean Sampson and Michael Smith - who were both suspended - and Nathan Sykes.
The Tigers however lived up to their nickname defensively for long spells in the first period as they battled hard to keep alive their outside chance of finishing in the top six for a play-off place.
The game slipped away from them completely however soon after the restart as the Bulls grabbed three tries in a five-minute spell to stretch their lead to a commanding 30-0.
Leading try scorer Tevita Vaikona sparked the try burst with a powerful effort from 30 metres, then centre Lee Gilmour raced in from near halfway after a break by second rower Daniel Gartner, soon to be followed by winger Lesley Vainikolo after good work by Deacon.
With Deacon converting all three, including one from the touchline, the Bulls had the game in the bag but Castleford battled on..
Their much weakened pack struggled to cope with the power of the home six but there was sterling work from Ryan Hudson, Andy Lynch and Lee Harland.
After 59 minutes Bradford's Brian McDermott was placed on report by referee Richard Silverwood after a tackle on Castleford's Adrian Rainey and from the resulting penalty winger Waine Pryce squeezed in at the corner to open their account.
The Bulls hit back immediately with further tries from centre Scott Naylor and McDermott but Castleford found consolation for their persistence with late tries by Rainey and substitute Wayne Godwin, both converted by hooker Wayne Bartrim.
Bradford assistant coach Darrel Shelford said: "We still have got plenty of work to do, but that was the sort of tough game we needed before facing Leeds next week.
"Cas are a gritty side and they stuck at it. We let in a couple of soft tries but generally we are moving in the right direction at this stage of the season."