Cumbria Division 1 Champions Upper Eden visit Aspatria on Saturday to decide which of the clubs will make progress in this season’s Cumbria Cup competition.
The game kicks off at 3pm and with both clubs reporting positive pre-season preparations the match should provide a good early season test for both clubs.
Next season Aspatria will operate at Level 6 in a new regional league. Upper Eden in any normal season would have earned the right to a promotion but the national reorganisation of the competition concluded that, at least, for another season they remain at Level 7, plying their trade within the boundaries of Cumbria.
Upper Eden have a point to prove in this eagerly awaited cup game having become Champions of Cumbria with a perfect playing record of 16 wins from 16 games. In 14 of these they additionally grabbed a bonus point.
On the scoring front Upper Eden averaged 46 points per game and restricted their opponents to less than eight. These are impressive statistics of which the Aspatria coaching team will be rightly wary.
Aspatria go into the tie from a 5-5 draw with Kendal on Saturday while Upper Eden enjoyed a 38-22 win over Sunderland.
The Aspatria v Upper Eden match up is likely to be the stand-out tie of the quarter finals and the last one to be played this week.
Carlisle entertain Egremont tonight and on Friday night Penrith will host Wigton.
Unfortunately Whitehaven have had to concede their tie with Kendal because holidays and family commitments over the bank holiday have left them without a front row.
