After three successive defeats Kells needed a performance and a result in the NCL Premier Division – and they got it.
The west Cumbrians were up for the visit of Wigan St Patrick’s and they handed out a 32-0 pummelling to their Lancashire visitors.
Coach Peter Smith said: “It was a good performance after a poor showing last week and the bonus was keeping our line intact for the full game.
“It was a lot better than the previous week and what we worked on in training showed up.”
Kells had dominated the first-half and led 20-0 by half-time with the Wigan side limited in options as they only travelled with 16 players.
The hosts had established their comfortable advantage by the break with tries from Lewis Smith, Dominic Wear and Ryan Watson plus four goals by Ross Gainford.
St Pat’s weren’t helped by a sin-binning for Jonny Brown (tripping) after an hour and during his absence Wear scored his second try, converted by Gainford.
Eight minutes from time Jack Ainley scored the fifth Kells try which was converted by Gainford.
Up the road at Wath Brow the Hornets were stung by an improved Rochdale Mayfield side who went third in the table with their 26-24 win.
The Brow had a chance to salvage a point after Jay Weatherill’s late try but Sam Curwen’s tough conversion attempt drifted just wide.
It was Weatherill who had put Hornets in front but by half-time Mayfield had scored three two tries, two of them converted, to lead 16-4.
Seven minutes from the end the lead was only two points – 22-20 – and although the Rochdale side crossed again they were left to sweat after Weatherill’s second try until Curwen’s goal attempt went wide.
The other Wath Brow tries to put them back in contention had come from Morgan McCourt, Cole Walker-Taylor and Fran King, two of which were converted by Curwen.
Egremont Rangers produced their best performance of the season when they travelled to Ince Rose Bridge and scored their first away victory in Division One with a convincing 58-6 scoreline.
From fourth bottom it catapulted Rangers up to fifth top and within touching distance of a play-off spot.
The Cumbrians made a flying start and were 18-0 ahead before the hosts registered their only points of the game, and by half-time had stretched their advantage to 34-6.
Leon Crellin was the star of the show with four tries while Kris Tyson put over nine successful kicks.
Tom Carruthers, Brad Long, Quinn Wright, Sam Appleby and Kieran Glenn scored the other Egremont tries.
Barrow Island have slipped to fourth bottom in Division Two after their 44-6 mauling at leaders Waterhead Warriors and it didn’t help that they travelled with only 14 players.
The fact that they had Cam Currie sin-binned on 23 minutes for a late tackle only added to their problems in a testing first-half when they trailed 26-6 at the break.
Currie’s return did provide some sort of inspiration as they immediately scored a try through Dan Wright, converted by Adam Jackson but that was it as far as the Islanders were concerned.
The south Cumbrians battled well enough in adversity but three second half tries, all converted, carried the Warriors to their comfortable victory leaving the Barrow side looking over their shoulders at the Division Two table strugglers.
It was a dismal day for Cunbria’s four Division Three sides with not a single win for any of them.
Especially disappointed were Millom who travelled to Eastmoor Dragons in good heart from a challenging League position, but were beaten 28-22 by the home strugglers.
They were locked at 22-22 when the Dragons fired in the winning try and conversion 11 minutes from the end.
Millom had trailed 22-10 at half-time so having got themselves back to parity, only to lose it late on was a huge disappointment.
It had looked promising when Dom O’Brien scored a try in the first minute and was followed over on seven minutes by Niall Harris with Lee Postlethwaite converting.
But then the Dragons roared back to establish their handy half-time lead, prompting a fight-back from the Woollybacks which brought tries from Layton French and Jonathan Hodgson, converted by Postlethwaite.
The momentum seemed to be with Millom until Reece Nicholson’s second try of the game, converted by Danny Johnson, snatched the points for the Dragons.
Ellenborough Rangers left it too late at Leigh East where the fight-back from 24-6 behind just fell short at 24-22. The Cumbrians have now been replaced in second place by their conquerors and themselves slip to fourth.
Elbra were still on the bus when the home side quickly established an 18-0 lead in as many minutes. An Andy Ostle try gave the visitors some home before they conceded another converted try.
A try and conversion by Owen Hoyles left Elbra trailing 24-10 at the break and they gradually eroded the advantage with Andy Ostle’s second try, converted by Hoyles.
Unfortunately a fourth try for the Cumbrians came too late to affect the result despite Hoyles landing the conversion, leaving them two points adrift.
Seaton Rangers remain bottom and the club, that enjoyed such a promising debut season last year, are having it tough at the moment.
A huge long-term injury list contributed to them leaving the Holmen Iggesund Cumberland ARL and they only travelled with 15 players to Bentley. The result was a 44-0 defeat after they had trailed 16-0 at half-time.
Hensingham are also next to bottom after they went down 25-4 at third-placed Beverley.
It had started well enough for the west Cumbrians as took an early lead from a try by Dan McGarry but by half-time the home side had taken a 12-4 lead.
There wasn’t a lot in it, as Hensingham battled well, but two more converted tries and a field goal pulled Beverley clear.
