It’s crunch day in the battle for the Cumbria League’s Premier Division title race with the two main contenders in direct opposition.
Cockermouth have a six-point lead over champions Carlisle ahead of their game at Sandair on Saturday.
The home side have certainly defied expectation after they lost four senior players ahead of the new season and are unbeaten, only denied the chance of a 100% record by a rained-off fixture.
Carlisle have done well to come back from an opening day defeat by Keswick and apart from last week’s rain-off at Dalton have won all of their games.
The two have been kept apart in the semi-finals of the Higson Cup, too, so if holders Cockermouth get past Furness and Carlisle win at Keswick then they will face-up again in the final.
Carlisle will be without pro and captain Michael Slack for the rest of the season and for the big clash at Sandair they have booked Promod Maduwantha who was professional at Furness in 2021.
Whitehaven have burst into the top four this season and will still consider themselves title contenders, even though their two defeats were against the top pair.
They have a Copeland derby when they entertain Cleator, a side who need to start putting some wins on the board as they hover in the danger zone.
That also applies to Workington, whose collapse from second top to second bottom has been the surprise of the first half of the season. They and Cleator are only nine points better off than Egremont at the bottom.
Workington face a Wigton side at Lowmoor Road who have suffered a couple of narrow defeats recently but have generally been on an upward curve after a slow start to the campaign.
Egremont would be heartily encouraged by last week’s big win over Furness and they are again at Gillfoot when Millom are the visitors. This is one Coady Scott and his team will have targeted for a win.
Millom had a good win at Wigton last week when their youngsters – Josh Mackie and Callum High – shone again and should have pro Nathan Waterston back in the firing line.
Keswick are fourth in the table, probably a little lower than they expected after the opening day win at Carlisle, but they have one of the League’s in-form amateurs in Glen Weightman who had scores of 96 and 90no last weekend.
They travel to Dalton where the home side were disappointed not to get a crack at the champions last week because of the rain.
The other game is an all-south Cumbria clash in which Haverigg entertain Furness – the hosts encouraged by an important win over Cleator last week, the visitors surely intent on making amends for their heavy defeat at Egremont on Saturday.
