It was a convincing win for Keswick 2nds in Cumbria One at Davidson Park, with the home side on top from the start in a dominant performance over the Zebras, who were mostly confined to their own half for much of the match which was played on a damp and dank afternoon on a wet pitch drizzled by rain, writes Ben Challis.
Keswick were off the mark within five minutes as Chris Woodhouse charged down the left wing, evading and outpacing three Workington defenders, and diving in by the corner flag for an unconverted try.
Just four minutes later Simon Cornthwaite wriggled his way through the Zebras’ disorganised defence on his second attempt to touch down right by the sticks, with Ste Holloway adding a simple conversion.
The third try was a superb effort from co-captain man of the Match Ben Clark who charged in and twisted down through a Zebra defender to score under the posts for a converted try.
With relentless Keswick pressure, and some excellent running from Ethan Black on his return from injury, Joe Quail was then denied when he burrowed over the Zebra’s try line only for the score to be chalked off for a knock on, but this attack then set up the ever busy Jake Winter who finished off the first half scoring with a try for a comfortable 24-0 lead.
Olly Dunn opened the second half scoring with a sprint up the right wing to touch down, with Ben Clark unlucky not to convert when his curling kick bounced off the upright. Despite a good try from the Zebras with a weaving run through a unusually muddled Keswick defence, Oli Clark finished the game off in some style, twice breaking through the Workington defence for two tries in quick succession, both converted by Holloway, for a final score of 43-5.
Keswick, now in ninth place in the Cumbria One table, are away at Creighton on Saturday who sit tenth.
Keswick’s First XV lost out in Regional Two North, but their injury depleted squad was unlucky to to get more from the away game in a very respectable 31-18 defeat to League Leaders Northern. They meet bottom side Guisborough at Davidson Park on Saturday and Garry Holmes’ side will be looking to secure maximum points to move back up the table.
Keswick RFC 1st XV 18 v 31Northern FC 1st XV Regional 2 North
Keswick were on top of this closely fought battle for 60 minutes with tries from Joe Allday and Jack Tinkler, and one conversion and two penalty goals from Glen Weightman, but faded in the last twenty minutes for league leaders Northern to take the win.
Coach Garry Holmes said: “I’m really pleased how we have grown over the last six weeks.
“We have gone into the last 20 minutes in the lead against both Middlesbrough and now Northern (the top 2) in the last 2 games.
“We need to learn to see these games out. I feel we were caught chasing a little this week once we went behind and Northern are very good at taking advantage of your mistakes.
“We are becoming more competitive with every game, and this has happened during somewhat of a mini injury crisis. In the coming weeks we should see the return of Karl Smyth and Marky Trow (both concussion), Dan Craghill (collar bone), Mike Tait, and Peter Weightman (whose injury thankfully doesn’t seem to be as bad as we had initially expected) and now with both Jamie Mackenzie and Kieran Mewse available again.
“This time has helped us all to understand our squad depth a little more, and club stalwarts John Addyman, Matty Atkinson, Josh Clark and Lewis Thompson have really stoop up and helped out in the last month.
“We are looking to kick on in December with three tough but winnable games. It will be a test to see if we can play the Keswick way in those games.”
