Barrow Island were the only Cumbrian winners in National Conference rugby on Saturday as the other eight county sides all lost!
It was an excellent, and timely win for the Islanders as it allowed them to move out of the relegation zone in Division Two as they were successful away from home at third in the table Oldham St. Anne’s.
Although they were out-scored by four tries to three, the goal-kicking of Max Anderson-Moore proved crucial. His six successful kicks made the difference in a 25-22 victory.
Going into the last ten minutes St. Anne’s were leading 22-20 but two penalty goals from Anderson-Moore and a drop goal from Ian Irvine gave the Islanders a great win.
Carl McBain, Declan Baines and Ryan Wilson scored the Barrow Island tries as the win lifted them out of the bottom three – but only on points differential ahead of their south Cumbrian rivals Millom.
The Woollybacks were at home to second-in-the-table Wigan St. Jude’s and were beaten 28-6 with their only success a try from Jonathan Hodgson which was converted by Jack Newbegin.
Ellenborough slipped into the bottom half of the table when they lost 30-22 at Thornhill which allowed the Trojans to leapfrog them into sixth place.
The Cumbrians led for a short time in the first half but were generally chasing the game and scored tries through Kai Gilhespy (2), Josh Patterson and Louis Fearon. Patterson kicked three goals.
Elbra coach Paul Gorge said: “It was yet another game where we played well and I thought could have won it. Once more it ws a case of being pleased with the performance but not pleased with the result.
“We were leading 12-6 near the end of the first half and we got a bad call which helped them into a 12-12 lead so we were trying to catch up in the second-half but I felt proud of the way they battled in the second-half. We had ten players missing for the game, mainly through holidays and work, and the lads who came in did really well.”
In the top flight there were defeats for Wath Brow, Kells and Egremont which meant all three losing ground with their particular targets.
Egremont are in most danger at the moment, second bottom, and two points from safety after losing 46-12 at the bottom side West Bowling.
Coach Rhys Davies said: “A slow start did us no favours, going 22-0 down but we got it back to 22-12 after correcting a few things. We had a decent dig but with lack of experience it cost us at times.”
Jenson Burney and Brad Long scored the Egremont tries, both converted by Matt Bewsher.
Kells are also still looking over their shoulders after they went down 20-0 at home to leaders Siddal but it was 0-0 when the home side had prop Dave Lowery red-carded.
It stayed that way until two minutes before half-time when Siddal scored a converted try and they managed to pull clear against the depleted Kells side in the second-half.
Kells coach Peter Smith said: “It was a solid performance up until the 20th minute when Dave was dismissed and again it was 0-0 until the 38th minute when they scored in the corner and were 6-0 up at the interval.
“The extra man that we didn’t have proved pivotal and they used it to their advantage, but we must learn from our mistakes.”
Wath Brow went to fourth-placed Rochdale Mayfield and went down 29-6 after trailing 16-0 at the break. Conor Molyneux gave the Hornets some hope when he went in for a try, converted by Cole Walker-Taylor.
The home side went on to take control after that as the Hornets disappointing run continued – only two win in the last seven games.
It was a similar story in Division Three where Distington, Hensingham and Seaton all lost – although two of them were closely contested affairs.
The one that wasn’t saw Hensingham beaten 54-14 at Drighlington, who leapfrog them into third place in the table. The game was virtually over at half-time as the west Cumbrians trailed 30-0.
It had moved to 36-0 before Hensingham got on the scoreboard with tries from Reuben Butterworth (2) and Liam Quail, one of which was converted by Jay Weatherill.
Coach Kris Coward wasn’t at all happy and said: “That was a really bad one to take. We started slowly and never recovered and capitulated really. We just have to get back on the horse because we can’t have these last two defeats spoiling what has promised to be a good season.”
Leaders Distington had accumulated eight wins in a row but they went down 28-20 at second-placed East Leeds after they had led 20-12 until the last ten minutes.
Kieran Worthington, James Motum and Bryan Ritchie scored the Distington tries with goals from Scott George (3) and Worthington.
Coach Aiden Worthington said: “I think if we had another couple of forwards on the bench to spell lads off we would have won it because we were the better side for most of the game. But we had gone very light and that cost us in the end.
“Fair play to East Leeds they saw where we were struggling and they brought this flying machine on and they scored three tries in the last seven minutes.”
Seaton put-up a great fight to register their second win of the season when they hosted Bentley but went under 10-4.
They were 10-0 behind until Duncan Moyles got over after an hour and despite a big finish and plenty of pressure they couldn’t find another score.
