They were searching the record books after Keswick won the Papa Johns Community Regional North Shield on Sunday.
It’s decades since Keswick last won a knock-out competition so there was much celebration after a 20-17 win over Olney from Northamptonshire at the Darlington Arena.
Keswick had reached the final after close encounters with Kirkby Lonsdale and West Hartlepool in games that went to the last few minutes to be decided.
Not much was known about the opposition but they had hammered Winnington Park 55-15 in the semi final after winning two earlier games.
It hadn’t started well for the Lakes side as Olney were quick out of the blocks straight from the kick-off and set up slick handling moves in the backs.
Within 10 minutes they were 12 points up through two tries one of which was converted and the hushed travelling Keswick support were thinking it was going to be a difficult afternoon.
Gradually, though, Keswick came back and started to make ground through good tactical kicking from Glen Weightman and solid forward drives led by Marky Trow.
One mistake in the Olney 22 gave a scrum for Keswick with the ball being picked up quickly by number eight Will Addyman for a blindside break, Drawing defenders he released Matty Roper for a dash to the corner and a well taken try.
Up stepped the peerless Kieran Mewse to convert from the touchline and bring the score to 7-12.
But Olney struck back almost immediately with another good backs move to score an unconverted try and stretch the lead to ten points.
Keswick then stepped up a gear and tightened their defence with some excellent tackling by Weightman, centre Ollie Clark and wingers Danny Craghill and Joe Allday. Better pressure on the Olney back line resulted in a penalty with Mewse converted to leave them trailing 17-10 at half-time.
The second half started with Keswick in the ascendancy and excellent scrummaging gave the team better field positions.
Front row of Mike Tait, Henry Etisoy and Dan Allaker were wearing down their opponents and freeing up the back five forward to make strong driving runs led by captain Aaaron Thompson and Karl Smyth.
In this period back row forwards Lewis Bell and Will Addymen were prominent winning turnover ball.
The game ebbed and flowed with both sides just missing out on scoring through last ditch tap tackles. Danny Price was introduced from the bench and made an immediate impact with darting runs and aforementioned last-ditch defence. Lance Lake continued the good work of the back row when he also came on.
With only ten minutes to go a great charge down by Etisoy gained field position and eventually space was created for proven match winner Ryan Weir to sprint outside the Olney defence for a brilliant try. Mewse conversion brought the scores level at 17-17.
The Keswick supporters were ecstatic at this point and right behind the team and they needed to be as a draw wasn’t good enough as the rules stated that if the game was drawn at the end of normal time it would be awarded to the first try scorers.
The clock was running down and Keswick continued to press looking for gaps and making ground.
Finally with minutes to go a penalty was awarded just inside the Olney half and out on the left. The tension in the crowd was becoming unbearable but Mewse was unflappable as he stepped up and calmly converted the penalty from 50 metres to give his side a 20-17 lead.
The travelling support erupted with joy. A clean take from the kick off and controlled forward play wound down the clock to the final whistle and brought delight for everyone involved with Keswick rugby club.
It was the perfect end to a testing, but ultimately successful season. Last minute survival at level 6 and now the first knockout trophy won by Keswick in decades.
Chairman of rugby, Trevor Keough said: ” Huge congratulations go to the whole club as this win has been built on the hard work of all the players, coaches, support staff and club members generally. The support for each other and playing regularly has paid dividends in the end.
“Congratulations in particular to the coaching team of Garry Holmes and John Crichton with Martin Relph who have worked extremely hard to keep improvement in playing standards going alongside making sure we were turning out teams throughout the season to meet our fixture commitments.
“A big thank you also to our volunteer first aid staff, committee members, club house helpers and ground staff who make the club what it is.
“The success of our Keswick Falcons women’s rugby team and junior sections has also been inspirational backed up by the support at Darlington yesterday.
“Finally thanks to our sponsors and excellent supporters who have made this season so memorable.
“We now move on to the next phase of life at Keswick rugby club with construction of a new club house, a new season to look forward to with new clubs to play and the continued growth in our playing membership with new young male and female talent coming through. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.”
