The latest round of Holmen Iggesund Cumberland ARL matches included two very tight and exiting games.
Egremont A edged out Distington A 26-24 while Cockermouth Titans squeezed home 34-32 at Askam.
At Egremont the home team scored tries through Cian Sharpe, Jordan Moyes, Jack Pae, Dillon Scott and Richard Farrer with three goals from Lee Rogers. Harry Lamb was their man of the match.
Distington responded with tries from Zac Payne (2), man of the match Tom Glover, Ethan Black and Bailey Worthington. Black kicked two goals.
Kevin Brown, the Egremont coach said: “It was a very good game between two very young sides with a sprinkling of old heads.
“Overall I thought it was a great win for us. We led 12-10 at half-time and rather pulled away before Distington came strongly at the end.
“The pleasing thing for me was the improvement we showed from the last game.”
His opposite number Ryan Hodgson added: “It was a superb game between two young, energetic and evenly matched sides. Both teams threw everything at each other with very little between them.
“It was a clean encounter played in a great spirit and I did think we had enough opportunities to have put the game to bed but didn’t execute our chances. I hope that will come in time.”
The other tight contest was in the south of the county where newcomers Askam were close to their first win but were beaten 32-30.
Askam coach Chris Broadley said: “It was a really competitive battle between two committed sides going ding dong at it. We scored, they scored. They scored two, we scored two. But they won it with a late penalty.
“From our point of view it was an improvement from our last game and that’s all you can ask. Rob Cockayne put in a really big performance for us and Brad Kavanagh wasn’t far behind.”
The Askam tries came from Luke McIntee, Cockayne, Dale Lambton, Zac Wright and Kavanagh. Lewis Stables kicked four goals.
Cockermouth, who led 22-10 at the break, scored tries through from Luke Armstrong (3), Lewis Shields and man of the match Ryan Scott with Regan Tinnion kicking six goals.
Assistant coach Jeff Clare said: “It was a really good team effort against a committed Askam side. It was the kind of all-round team performance that should set us up for the rest of the season.
“There were lots of guts and determination on show, along with some skill as well so it’s onwards and upwards from here.
“There were also some outstanding individual performances, particularly young Spencer Fulton in the centre; Luke Armstrong who scored a hat-trick of tries and the skipper Regan Tinnion who kicked well, including the last minute penalty to win the game.”
Kells A were 34-4 winners at Flimby with tries from Dan Grears, Kieron Halcrow, Richard Marr, Arben Pervizaj, Keelan Parr and Connor Hetherington. Ross Gainford kicked four goals.
Coach Jonathan Wignall said: “It was a good win in a game that was played in a good spirit against a determined Flimby side.
“We had a large number of changes again in the team with another debutant from the Under-18s in Jamie Reay.
“Dylan Hurton made his first appearance of the season and was deservedly man of the match.
“We scored some nice tries on the back of some outstanding defence. We have a week off now to prepare for the Amateur Cup quarter final against Lowca.”
Nathan Kirkbride scored the Flimby try and coach Ricky Morrison said: “We knew that it would be a tough game with Kells being a well-drilled side but our lads dug deep in the second half and gave a good account of themselves.
“Second row Sam Fearon is only 17 years of age and got our man of the match with his excellent defence and attack. It was great to see another youngster Zac Bancroft put in a great performance too.
“I’d just like to thank Kells for donating a Wigan Academy shirt for us to raffle.”
In the other game Wath Brow A retained their 100% start to the season with a 38-12 home win over Aspatria after a hard first half in which the Hornets eventually led 20-12.
Jack Maegan (2), Luke Spivey, Jamie McAllister, man of the match Devan Sharp, Daley Stables and Nat Dougan scored the Hornets tries with Matt Sibbald kicking five goals.
Kris Beattie and Ben Tootill scored the Aspatria tries with two goals from Tootill.
Mark Ridley for Aspatria said: “We were disappointed with the result, but not the performance. We led twice in the first half through good tries from Kris and Ben, the second after a great break from Mark Irwin.
“It was 14-12 but right on-half time the Brow scored again and in the second-half we were against the wind and rain. The lads dug deep and held then for 20 minutes before they scored and they went on to grab two late tries which rather distorted the final score.
“Our penalty count was high and I am sure that’s something the coaching team will be working on this week.”
