Kendal beat Aspatria 43-24 in their County Cup clash at Mint Bridge in what proved to be a highly entertaining quarter final tie.
There had been suggestions that Kendal might put out their second team but they respected the competition and fielded a side close to the one that played in their League game at Anselmians last week-end.
It was a first home game in the Cumbria Cup since 2014 and the first visit of Aspatria for a competitive game since 1999. Kendal’s Cumbria captain Matt Houghton was making his 199th appearance for the hosts.
The omens were not good for Aspatria from the outset, losing second row replacement, Jude Wilkinson to injury in the warm-up.
It got worse in the first few minutes of play when both scrum-half Alex Barton and hooker James Hunter suffered game ending injuries.
Kendal took an early 3-0 lead from a penalty goal by Aaron Stephens and registered their first try with ten minutes played, pouncing on an Aspatria error and then using speed of thought and foot to exploit space down the touchline to punish the visitors as George Phillipson powered down the line for the try which Stephens converted.
This pattern of Aspatria error-Kendal score would become a feature of the first half. When the Black Reds lost the ball, Alistair Thompson made a good break from his own half.
He found Ollie Rose, who made more ground before sending Devin Coyle racomg through to score his first try for Kendal and again Stephens converted.
It was looking grim for Aspatria and on 25 minutes Aspatria again committed the sin of handing possession to Kendal, who proved more than able to take full advantage with a third score.
Ben Dixon made ground before passing to the supporting Phillipson who chipped ahead and then gathered his kick to score. Aaron Stephens converted for a 24-0 lead.
It looked all over for Aspatria but to their credit they finished the half well. Heads did not drop and a new determination set in that was enough to pin Kendal back into their 22. The well-drilled Kendal defence ensured there was no scoring reward for Aspatria’s efforts but the mood had changed and the second half turned out to be an entirely different game.
Within a few minutes of the restart, Aspatria put points on the board. The home side were pushed back to the try line and in defence conceded a penalty. Scrum-half, Jack Clegg took a quick tap and headed to the line where he popped a pass for onrushing number eight Chris Graham to batter a way over the line.
Kendal responded with a clever kick from midfield into space out wide and were rewarded with a gift of a try. Not for the last time in the contest Aspatria had cause to wonder if the runner was offside but all protestations were turned aside by the referee and his touch judges.
Dan Shorrock had put the long kick deep into the Aspatria half where Dixon gave chase and managed to hack the ball in field for Shorrock to gather and score. Stephens converted.
It was now 31-7 but again the setback did not shake a new found confidence in the Aspatria ranks.
Sustaining a long period of possession delivered a second try on 65 minutes. It was patient stuff from the visitors who dragged the Kendal defence in various directions before wing Kai Gilhespy found a gap to go in at the corner flag following some excellent go-forward work by centre Guy Reed.
Aspatria now had Kendal in all-out defensive mode before Kendal broke and there was more controversy when an excellent passing move down the right appeared to end in a try for Shorrock. But the referee called play back to deep in the Kendal half for a forward pass early in the move.
Shortly afterwards Shorrock, knocked on when appearing to be trying to intercept a Aspatria pass, but the referee felt it was a deliberate knock on, and he was given Kendal’s first yellow card of the season.
As a result the penalty went to the corner and from the line-out a maul to the line commenced. It was a slow burner but inch by inch Aspatria edged to the white line where Adam Cavanagh touched down to close the gap to 31-19.
A complete Aspatria comeback looked improbable but pride in performance had been restored.
Into the final 10 minutes with play evenly balanced but Kendal’s kicking game again exploited space behind the Aspatria defensive line to put the final result beyond doubt.
Kendal nerves were settled when Ben Dixon made a break and again put a kick infield for Rose to gather and score with Stephens adding the conversion.
With five minutes to play Kendal scored again after Charlie Lowther spotted a loose ball and secured possession for the home side. The ball was moved right, and this time Dixon did go for the line, and despite defenders on him managed to touchdown. Stephens was off target for the only time in the tie.
The scoring was not yet finished. With the last move of the game Aspatria responded with a fourth try and again it was Gilhespy in at the right hand corner to end an entertaining game.
