Keswick had one of the longest trips of the year to face newly promoted West Hartlepool in their opening Regional 2 North fixture and were beaten 36-3.
Both sides had reported good pre-season preparation so the fixture and new season were eagerly anticipated.
West Hartlepool are a former Premier League side whom Keswick had never played before so this was another first.
A minute’s silence was held before the game in memory of former president, chairman and treasurer of Keswick, Jeremy Hall, who died suddenly recently.
Both sides tested out each other early on with a mixture of forward drives and kick and chase.
It was West Hartlepool who opened the scoring after 13 minutes when a slick handling move created an overlap for the winger to score in the corner and the try was converted.
This was against the run of play as Keswick had started to gain an edge in the set piece but had not made scoring use of possession.
Keswick then had a period of dominance and retained possession and managed to score from a penalty by Kieran Mewse.
It looked like everything was to play for at that stage but eight minutes later West struck back with an unconverted try and were gifted another just before half time after an overthrow at a Keswick line out five metres from the line.
The 17 – 3 score-line did not reflect the effort being put in by the Keswick side with Mark Trow leading the way driving forward from rucks with good work in the backs led by captain George Holme.
The second half saw West Hartlepool starting to gain strength in the set-piece scrums and line-outs which gave a better platform for their attacking skills.
Keswick were mostly on the defensive in the half with some outstanding last line of tackling from full back Dan Craghill who was selected by the match sponsors as Keswick’s man of the match.
There were rare moments when Keswick broke out through kick and chase or where Ryan Weir or Trow broke the West defensive line but overall it was a defensive effort for the whole half.
West Hartlepool scored three more tries for a final score of 36-3 and a bonus point win.
There were a number of positives coming out of the game particularly Keswick’s early showing in scrum and line out and some stand out individual performances.
Experience from last season shows that this is a tough league but there are good results to be had. The team now looks forward to the first home fixture against Durham City on Saturday at Davidson Park. Kick off 3pm.
Keswick 2nds take on Millom, also at home, in the Counties One Cumbria League.
