In a Mint Bridge classic of second versus third, Kendal came out on top 38-25 against Firwood Waterloo.
It was sweet revenge for Kendal as the visitors were one of only two teams to have beaten them this season.
Waterloo probably just shaded the opening quarter on possession and territory but the opening score on 23 minutes went Kendal’s way.
Kris Bratton made the initial break, which was continued by Ben Dixon who was able to put the supporting Lewis Kincart in for an unconverted try.
It wasn’t helping Kendal’s cause that they were giving away needless penalties and were in more trouble after 30 minutes when Reece Tomlinson was picked out for an offence and received a yellow card.
Waterloo certainly made Kendal pay as they used the one-man advantage effectively before half-time to build a 14-7 lead with two converted tries.
Kendal resumed in determined fashion and inside two minutes had gone over for a second unconverted try to cut the deficit.
Chris Park released Dixon and once again he did a lot of the spadework before handing on to Dan Shorrock, who still had to slalom his way past the last defenders to score.
But when the Kendal forwards did not properly look after the restart kick, eventually pinged for killing the ball, Waterloo took the option of a fairly easy penalty.
In the 49th minute Kendal were able to regain the lead they had lost in ten hard-pressed minutes at the end of the first half.
Glen Weightman had put in a clever re-start kick which was tapped back by Shorrock for Dan Greenwood. Again Dixon had a part to play, taking the ball almost to the line and from there it was moved to Tomlinson who put Bratton in for the try which was converted by Park.
After having what appeared to be a splendid try disallowed, Kendal flourished again. Lewis Kincart, Danny Barker and Dixon (again) worked a planned move which was finished off by Weightman. Park converted.
On the hour Kendal again went down to 14, this time after a clumsy tackle by Dane Blenkharn saw him sin-binned, and once more the visitors made them pay.
A quickly taken penalty found Kendal short of defenders and they went in for a third try to cut the deficit tom four points.
It was now becoming a gripping contest and after just being stopped from grounding the ball over the Kendal line the visitors took the opportunity to land a penalty and make it a one-point game.
When they were back up to strength Kendal increased the tempo and Waterloo suddenly began to give away penalties, eventually having a player yellow carded.
Now it was Kendal’s turn to make the extra man count. From a scrum near the Waterloo line number eight Steve Nelson had too much power for the defenders and burst over for the try which Weightman converted.
There couldn’t have been a better ending for Kendal when Dixon, who had a hand in all but one of the five tries, got one himself. After booting a loose ball down the touchline he got there to gather and despite a late challenge managed to stay in the field and get over in the corner.
