Whitehaven are the first team through to the quarter finals of the Cumbria County Cup.
They beat Silloth 39-26 in a mid-week first round tie to earn a trip to Kendal.
Unfortunately the two other first round games have been conceded.
Cockermouth declared a couple of weeks ago that they would be unable to play their tie with Kendal and now St Benedict’s have said they have insufficient players to go to Upper Eden tomorrow.
In Upper Eden’s case it was initially a double disappointment after their good win over Darlington last Saturday. They had been promised a friendly with Keswick, which was dropped to fit in the Cup game with Benny’s.
However the Kirkby Stephen team have found a good replacement fixture with Sunderland accepting the late invitation to play in Cumbria.
As for the Cup-tie which went ahead a decent crowd turned-up to witness Silloth’s competitive return after a virtual three year absence. Whitehaven also took a good travelling group of supporters.
Before the start there was a minute’s silence for Wendy Harrison, daughter of former committee member Charlie Harrison, who had died the week before.
Silloth stalwart Phil Scott said: “It was a great turn out for our first competitive game in over three years and we’d like to thanks the hundreds who came along to make it a great community effort.
“I think Gaz Nicholson should take a lot of credit for he has done loads behind the scenes to get us back up and running.
“Although Whitehaven ended up winning 39-26 all our lads played well and we are looking forward to our first League game on September 3 at home to Penrith 2nds. We are also looking for more players and anyone looking for a game will be warmly welcomed.
“On the night our committee deserved a big thank you for their work behind the bar serving refreshments and food.”
After an initial surge from Silloth, keen to get off to a flying start, Whitehaven held them and then established a 12-0 lead with tries from Luke Richardson and Kieran Mewse. The second was converted by Mewse.
The biggest cheer of the night greeted Silloth’s opening try from Joe Smith midway through the half.
But Whitehaven were able to pull away before the break and turn round with a 24-5 lead.
Early in the second-half, though Silloth were awarded a penalty try for a high tackle and Whitehaven had a man sin-binned as a result.
In fact the visitors lost a second man right afterwards to another yellow card and they had virtually a full ten minutes with 13 men.
Silloth couldn’t capitalise, however and it was Whitehaven who scored the next two tries from Steven McConnell and Jordan Scott, the second of which was converted by Mewse.
Ellis Nixon went over for Silloth, and Luke Johnson converted before Whitehaven’s Mewse took the three points on offer from a simple penalty.
Battling Silloth kept going and they had the final word when veteran Ricki Sutcliffe scored their fourth try which Johnson converted.
