Carlisle needed to make a statement of intent as they started the new season in Counties 1 Cumbria, the lowest level they have played at.
A home game with Penrith 2nds was their first fixture and they opened impressively with a 54-17 win.
It couldn’t have started better with tries in the first five minutes from Josh Holmes and Nathan Greenhow, countered by a Penrith penalty.
By half-time the lead had been stretched to 21-10 with Holmes over again and Jason Israel adding his third conversion. A poor pass helped Penrith score a converted try in reply.
In the end the rest of the scoring was done inside an hour as both sides tired considerably in the heat.
Holmes completed his hat-trick; Greenhow added a second and there were also tries for Max Kirton, Tom Graham and Rory Parish.
Carlisle will be without a game on Saturday as their scheduled hosts Silloth have had to resign from the league through a lack of players.
Club stalwart Phil Scott stresses they have not folded, hope to re-group and organise some social games during the season.
Creighton opened the season with an exciting 25-23 win over Wigton after they had trailed 20-5. They hope to follow-up at Aspatria Eagles while Wigton don’t have a scheduled fixture.
The other Counties 1 games are: Hawcoat Park v Egremont; Keswick 2nds v Millom; Windermere v Whitehaven; Workington v Penrith 2nds.
Penrith started life in Regional 1 North West with a 33-24 home defeat to Macclesfield and follow-up at Stockport who were beaten by the same score – 33-24 – at Kendal.
That was a very promising performance by Kendal and they follow-up at Manchester who opened with a 22-22 draw at Anselmians.
In the Regional 2 North League only one of the four Cumbrian sides won – newly promoted Upper Eden with a fine 42-33 victory at Consett.
That was just the start the Counties 1 Cumbria champions needed and they follow-up with a home game against West Hartlepool who had started strongly with a 36-3 home win over Keswick.
Aspatria were well beaten 51-12 at an impressive Middlesbrough while Cockermouth battled well at Durham City before going under 36-5.
Aspatria travel again on Saturday, this time to Stockton, but the other three all have home fixtures – Cockermouth v Percy Park; Keswick v Durham City and Upper Eden v West Hartlepool.
