Wigton travelled to Keswick for a Friday night under lights and came away with a 45-13 victory.
Because of the construction of the new clubhouse, Keswick can only accommodate one fixture at home at a time so the night match was agreed.
It started in the worst possible fashion as Wigton’s Achilles heel of catching kick-offs reared its head after five seconds, the kick was spilled forward, and a Wigton player in an offside position picked up the ball.
A penalty was awarded, which Steve Holloway kicked for Keswick to take a 3-0 lead inside 60 seconds. It took a while for Wigton to settle down, but when they did and went through some phases they looked threatening.
The Greens’ first try was scored from a good line-out catch and drive that narrowed the Keswick defence, and when the ball was moved wide Cory Bouch darted over to give Wigton a 5-3 lead.
From the resulting kick-off, which was taken cleanly, Wigton moved the ball well and good support play took them to the Keswick 22, where ever improving Will Wilson ran a great line to go through untouched to score under the posts, with Elliot Armstrong converting.
Next to score was skipper Ryan Wannop who crashed over from five metres following good build-up play, keeping the ball alive in contact.
Young back rower Charlie Bell was having one of his best games and he made a searing break to leave the Keswick defence fractured, which allowed Stuart Carruthers the chance to execute a chip and chase, before winning the race to the touchdown for a good individual try which left Wigton 24-3 ahead at the break.
At the start of the second half Wigton fell foul of the referee’s interpretations of the law and conceded five successive penalties to hand Keswick field position to score their first try from Jake Winter, following a series of pick and drives.
More indiscretions by Wigton saw them defend their line for five minutes, but when a penalty was won, the ever-alert Fergus Ledingham took a quick tap and Wigton moved the ball into space.
After a couple of phases Tom Maughan burst the line and went 40 metres to score and Armstrong converted.
From the re-start Joe Marrs made a good outside break and he was well supported by Matty Harrison who in turn found Armstrong to score a converted try.
More pressure from Keswick tested the Wigton defence and when a turn-over was won, the speed of transition from defence to attack allowed Wigton to break-out and get into the Keswick 22.
They were awarded another penalty which was taken quickly and Harrison scored the try which Armstrong converted.
Credit to the young Keswick side who never gave up and scored the final try of the game through Joe Quail.
Wigton now focus on the visit of Windermere to Lowmoor Road on Saturday, kick-off 3pm while Keswick 2nds visit Cockermouth.
