Cumbria’s fine County Championship triumph at Twickenham in 1997 was relived in the Aspatria clubhouse at Bower Park.
The majority of the side which beat Somerset 21-13 to lift their second county title were there to meet up again and renew old friendships.
Captain Mark Richardson said: “It was great to see the lads there again and everybody thoroughly enjoyed the night.
“Howard Nicholson acted as MC and was in sparkling form as always and we had a couple of speeches from Malcolm Brown and Mike Armstrong before I said a few words.
“There were about 70 in total at the function which we organised to coincide with the 25 years since the memorable season which ended at Twickenham.”
Fourteen members of the travelling squad attended along with coach Tommy Borthwick and is assistant Jimmy Miller, while there were apologies from John McCune, Steve Milnes and David Warwick who were in the starting line-up.
Also unable to be present were members of the bench – David Johnston, Paul Hancock and James Cartmel along with unused substitute George Doggart.
In their opening group fixture Cumbria beat one of the favourites in Lancashire and followed-up impressively with a 70-point mauling of East Midlands.
Although they lost narrowly to Leicestershire on a pitch which wasn’t in the best condition they qualified for the quarter finals where they beat a fancied Yorkshire side rather comfortably.
It set up one of the finest victories of the campaign – 38-24 down in Cornwall in an epic semi-final.
Members of the travelling party had been greeted with cries of: “It’s been a long trip for you, and even longer when you go back after a defeat.”
But an inspired performance provided Cumbria with a comfortable victory and a magivcal return to Twickenham.
There were tries for Andrew Bell and Steven Milnes with man of the match Mike Scott converting one and adding three penalties. An 11-8 half-time lead was converted into a 21-13 victory.
In the picture: Back row, left to right: Paul Dixon, Brian Atkinson, Andrew Bell, Paul Burns, Steven Irving, Tommy Borthwick, Paul Thompson, Sean Cusack.
Front row: Mike Armstrong, Graham Cook, Mark Richardson, Mike Scott, Paul Cusack.
Matthew Lynch and assistant coach Jimmy Miller also attended but missed the photo.
