The four games in the Holmen Iggesund Cumberland ARL were almost as tight as had been anticipated.
Champions Distington were narrowly in front 16-14 at Kells A when they stopped for the half-time break but pulled away impressively to score 30 unanswered points in the second-half.
Kwells had actually finished the first-half on top, clawing their way back from 16-4 in arrears to within two points of their visitors.
But four minutes after the restart Jack Penrice scored Distington’s fourth try and from that point they never looked back.
James Motum quickly added the fifth on 49 minutes and further touchdowns followed from Scott George (57), Penrice (63) and again on 71 minutes to complete his hat-trick before former Kells man Tyrone Dalton scored the ninth and final try two minutes from the end.
Steve Clark boosted the Distington points tally by landing five goals.
Gavin Martin had opened the scoring after only eight minutes, followed soon after by Jack Speight before Martin O’Neil crossed for an unconverted Kells try.
Martin scored his second on 29 minutes before Kells fired back inside the last five minutes with tries from Dan Griers and Ashton Sice, the second one converted by Kieran Fleming.
The tight look to the weekend programme was epitomised by the clash at Gillfoot between Egremont A and Glasson Rangers which finished all square at 24-24.
Egremont had opened up a 24-12 lead by half-time but the second half belonged to the visitors who scored two converted tries to take home a share of the points.
Tom Houghton (2), Matt Bewsher, James Messenger and Dillon Scott scored the Egremont tries, two of which were converted by Kaiden Block.
Glasson earned their point with tries from Shane Williamson, Matt Burns, Scott Faulkener and Connor Wilson with Luke Johnson notching four goals.
A week earlier Hensingham A had won 34-24 at Cockermouth, and when they met again it was expected to be equally tight.
So it proved with Cockermouth travelling for the return, looking for quick revenge and going back home satisfied after a 42-32 victory.
The Titans had opened-up a 30-16 lead by half-time and Hensingham couldn’t claw enough back in a tight second period.
The opening try came for Cockermouth after 12 minutes when Regan Tinnion got over and Ryan Scott added the first of his seven conversions.
Hensingham took only three minutes to level when Matthew Williams got over and Dane Richardson added the conversion.
Then in a remarkable 18 minute spell Scott helped himself to a hat-trick of tries, converting them all, to open up a big lead for the visitors.
Hensingham did hit back before the interval with tries from Gary Hanlon and Scott Egan, the first converted by Ben Pearce, but they trailed by 14 points at the break.
They got the quick score they need on the resumption through Egan, with Pearce’s conversion but Cockermouth were quick to respond. Alex Barton scored a try, converted by Scott.
Keelan McKeown scored an unconverted try for Hensingham after 70 minutes but again the Titans hit back immediately with a try from Ashley Smith and Scott maintained his 100% record with the boot.
Although Hensingham did have the final word with a try and conversion from Pearce it was not going to be enough.
Maryport weren’t able to build on their E Lamb and Son Amatuer Cup triumph as they lost 28-23 at home to Lowca.
It was a good, hard game that could have quite easily gone the other way as Maryport were in front for practically all the game.
However continued pressure on the Maryport line saw Lowca get over to score the winning try and conversion with minutes remaining.
Atlee Skillen, Chris Ivison and Darren Degraff scored the Maryport tries with Josh Patterson landing three goals and a field goal.
The Lowca tries were scored by Emerson Allen (2), Mitchell Todd, Luke Stockton and Mullen Robinson with four conversions from Jamie Scott.
