Wath Brow Hornets claimed the early bragging rights over their Copeland rivals Kells in the National Conference Premier Division.
They won a fine game 22-14 although Kells will point to the sending-off of Lewis Smith for a high tackle in the second-half as the turning point.
Kells were ahead 6-4 at the break and had extended that to 12-4 when Smith was shown a red card. Hornets immediately pulled back to 12-10 and although Ross Gainford was able to add to Kells’ lead with a penalty the handicap of losing Smith proved crucial in the closing stages.
Wath Brow, who had former Whitehaven captain Karl Dixon back in their colours again, finished strongly to win it with two tries from Clark Riley in the last nine minutes, both converted by Cole Walker-Taylor.
Charlie Tomlinson had scored the Brow try in the first-half and Sam Curwen went in for the second after Smith’s dismissal. Walker-Taylor finished with three goals.
Jack Ainley and Aaron Burns had scored the Kells tries, both converted by Gainford.
Kells coach Peter Smith said: “I asked the lads for commitment and we got that. The red card for Lewis would have just been a penalty a couple of years ago but with the new rules the referee had to act on it.
“We move on now to next week and another good, tough game in prospect against West Hull.”
Egremont are Cumbria’s best placed side in the top flight, currently lying sixth with the other two right behind them.
Rhys Davies’ men grabbed win number three when they came strongly in the second-half to beat winless Lock Lane 40-10 at Gillfoot.
Davies said: “It was a carbon copy of the week before. We played up the hill first-half and went in with a 16-10 lead which I wasn’t overly pleased about as we had let them back into the game through not respecting the ball and executing their sets.
“The second-half was totally different as we dominated and pulled clear for a clear-cut win.”
Tom Houghton, Nathan Preston and Zak Conway had scored first-half tries, both converted by Matty Bewsher.
In a dominant second-half performance there were further Egremont tries from Kieran Glenn, Tom Horner, Leon Crellin and Houghton with Bewsher adding four goals.
In Division Two the Cumbrian derby ended in an 18-10 win for Millom at home to Ellenborough.
Tries from Jonathan Hodgson and Aiden Wilson, converted by Lee Postlethwaite had helped Millom into a 12-6 half-time lead and Adam Kelly went in for a third try just after the re-start with Postlethwaite converting.
Zac Olstrum scored both tries for Elbra with Sean Mumberson converting the first.
Ellenborough coach Paul Gorge said: “It was another good performance from the team. We have gone up another League this year and have been competitive in every game, which is good.
“Although we were some players short we still took a strong squad and the effort and commitment was excellent.
“It’s been a hard week for the club having lost a great servant in Sean Tierney, whose brother Gary plays for us. He has been a real good, hard worker for the club over many years and his death has affected everyone. I thought the team put everything into the game for him.”
Barrow Island’s game at leaders Shaw Cross Sharks was called-off because of a waterlogged pitch.
The Division Three table makes good reading for Distington and Hensingham as, after five games apiece, they jointly lead the way with eight points.
Distington had the bottom side Featherstone Lions as visitors and after a fairly tight first-half, in which they led 16-6, they pulled clear to win 36-6.
Nicky Cooke, Jack Penrice and Liam Friel scored first-half tries with two of them converted by Scott George.
In the second-half there were tries for Cooke (2 – completing a hat-trick), Stephen Clarke and Scott Rooke, with George converting two of them.
Head coach Aiden Worthington said: “I was pleased with the performance in what proved to be difficulty conditions in bad weather. The pitch cut up badly after about 15/20 minutes and was a bit of a swamp.
“Featherstone competed well enough but once we started scoring tries 20 minutes into the second-half their heads went down a bit.”
Hensingham had an excellent, but nail-biting 24-22 home win over Leigh East after establishing an early 10-0 lead, which then saw them trail 12-10 at the break.
A Jay Weatherill penalty pulled them level on the hour before Luke Charlton’s try, improved by Weatherill edged them back in front. Tghen the visitors hit back with an unconverted try.
It was 18-16 going into the closing stages and Hensingham looked to have clinched it when Charlton scored again three minutes from the end with Weatherill converting.
But there was still time for a last minute converted try for the visitors and a nervous conclusion for Kris Coward’s team.
Matt Williams and Josh Rogerson had scored Hensingham’s early tries, one of which was converted by Weatherill.
Head coach Coward said: “I think the most pleasing thing as a coach is that we’re finding ways to win. Our mental resilience is good now. If we go behind we are able to stay in the game and grind it out, winning ugly if we have to.
“I’ve been going on about making better starts because we have been sluggish so far. This time we started really well, on the front foot and it could easily have been 20-0 instead of 10-0.
“But for whatever reason we took our foot off the gas and let them back into it – penalties, wrong decision making and a sin-binning didn’t help.
“But we got sorted and second-half got ourselves in front again and were able to grind it out. There were a few heart-stopping moments late on when they scored but we managed to hold on for an important win against a good side.”
Seaton Rangers were without a fixture and resume on Saturday with a local derby at home to Distington.
