Whitehaven’s progress so far this season will face the ultimate test on Saturday when they host Cumbria League Premier Division champions Carlisle.
The Playground club has risen to third in the table, just one place behind Carlisle, as they both chase the 100% leaders Cockermouth.
Whitehaven will remind themselves that they failed their first significant test of the campaign when they lost to Cockermouth.
They can’t afford to slip up again if they genuinely do have title ambitions and the clash with Carlisle could be season-defining.
The champions are going well after that initial loss on opening day to Keswick and so far have managed to prosper without their talisman skipper and professional Michael Slack.
A good choice of sub pro so far has assisted the Carlisle cause and they will be looking to find another for the trip to the Playground.
Cockermouth, meanwhile, sail on relatively serenely defying key departures to rattle up seven straight wins.
They are at home against a Furness side, slow into stride but starting to rediscover their mojo – now matching three victories with three early losses as they climb to sixth.
They clearly have a good new pro in Matthew Kleinveldt who tops the averages with four fifties and a century for 108.75 and most runs 435.
Cockermouth will again be relying on their stand-in pro Chirag Khurana until the return of Shrikant Mundhe and want to continue their winning habit.
Keswick, after that great opening win over Carlisle and with the endorsement of opposing skipper Michael Slack ringing in their ears, have come unstuck in the last two weeks.
A defeat at Cockermouth was not entirely unexpected but Saturday’s home loss to Wigton certainly was and they are very much on a recovery mission at Egremont.
It’s the perfect opportunity for the Fitz Park side to get back to winning ways as bottom side Egremont have only won once so far and have looked fragile in a few games.
Egremont desperately need to put some victories together or they are in danger of being cut adrift at the bottom.
Last weekend certainly belonged to Wigton for apart from their win at Keswick they had also won at Cockermouth on Friday night in their opening T20 game.
That’s a good double for the Lowmoor Road side whose confidence will have been given a major boost by those two victories.
That’s not the case with Cleator who travel to Wigton a little bit deflated at not being able to follow-up a win at Workington, although it was leaders Cockermouth who proved too strong last week.
Cleator will be without their professional Rishabh Tiwari again but he will be back next week-end. He had a large part to play in their recent win at Workington and they will be looking to have a sub pro in the side for the trip to Wigton.
As for Workington they can’t buy a win at the moment and their home clash with Millom is certainly a contest between two sides low in confidence.
Five straight defeats have followed two wins to start the season for Workington while Millom have won only once so far.
Millom’s new pro Nathan Waterston hit his career best score of 151not out at the Valentine Ground for Furness a couple of years ago and he will be hoping a return there will kickstart his own season with the bat.
The final League game is at Poolside in a clash of the lowest placed south Cumbrians (Haverigg 10th) and the highest placed in Dalton (5th).
Haverigg struggled to avoid the drop last season before finally securing their safety while Dalton came up from Division One and have made a very good fist of adapting to life in the top flight.
There are matches in the T20 competition with Whitehaven v Cleator getting things underway in the West group tonight and Workington v Egremont following on tomorrow.
Haverigg v Millom is the only South group game tomorrow while there are no games in the north section.
