Kendal surrendered their unbeaten record in North One West with a 17-15 defeat at Firwood Waterloo.
The main disappointment, however, was that they had established a 15-0 but could not hold on and were left to rue the good scoring opportunities that got away.
When Waterloo were caught off-side in midfield Kendal took an early lead with a Chris Park penalty.
Then followed a period of home pressure in the Kendal 22 but Waterloo were often let down by handling errors in the damp conditions and could not find a way through a solid visitors’ defence.
After Kris Bratton had made a good break, only to lose the ball in the tackle, Kendal extended their lead after 20 minutes with an unconverted try.
A powerful drive by the forwards to the line ended with the ball coming back to Jordan Johnson who broke away and put Dan Shorrock in at the corner.
Both teams were reduced to fourteen men on 21minutes following an altercation over a Waterloo penalty. Kendal’s Liam Hayton and the Waterloo scrum half and captain Luke Clifford were given ten minutes to cool down!
Kendal extended their lead on the half hour mark. When Kendal won line-out ball the home forwards were standing-off them anticipating the drive, but to no avail. Greg Wrathall spotted, and then made a gap count, as he went over unopposed from close-in. Park slotted the conversion for a 15-0 lead which they held until half-time.
Five minutes into the second-half Waterloo were back in the contest, although it seemed Shorrock had got back to make a try-saving tackle.
The referee deemed it to be high, and from the penalty the hosts moved the ball left where flanker Chris Cunningham found a gap to score and Clifford converted.
Soon after Waterloo were within a point of the Cumbrians. Again it stemmed from a penalty when they set up a position for centre Gabe Davies to go over. This time winger Jago Ford added the conversion.
On the hour another well-executed drive from the Kendal pack took them to the line, but the referee decided the ball had not been grounded and under a new Law, Waterloo were give a clearing kick, rather than an attacking scrum, which with the Kendal pack in control would have set up another scoring chance.
Then Hayton broke through and passed to replacement Ross McKay, who seemed to have a clear run to the line, but instead passed to Shorrock who was coming up fast on the wing. He had to slow down to take the pass and the Waterloo defence got back to put him to touch.
Park had a chance to extend the lead but after putting over a much more difficult kick in the first half, failed to find the target.
Then on 71 minutes Kendal were punished for their missed opportunities, when Waterloo were awarded a penalty, and Ford put over the kick which was to be the winning contribution to the score-line.
There was still a chance for Kendal to snatch it after the forwards had put in another typically strong drive which earned a penalty. Too far out for a kick at goal, replacement Dan Lowther went to put the ball into touch, but only kicked it dead, and the chance was lost.
