Preceded by a huge downpour of heavy rain and strong winds, Workington Town took early control of their Betfred League One game against Newcastle Thunder, and earned a convincing victory.
They ran in 10 tries, eight of which were converted by Man of the Match Jake Carter in an important return to winning ways.
Town started as they meant to go on, with the ever busy Jamie Doran slotting through a perfectly weighted grubber kick to the left corner flag which Dave Eccleston was only to happy to dive onto to to touch down for a 4-0 lead.
Thunder held back Town until 16 minutes in when the impressive Andy Djeukessi collected a beautiful pass from Zarrin Galea and the loanee from Castleford Tigers was simply too clever for the waiting Newcastle defence, dancing his way through and diving into score with Carter converting for 10-0.
With hooker Jude Lupton in fine form in his first start for Town, It was Doran who had the next score with a 30-metre charge, barrelling through the Thunder defence to power over the try line, with Carter adding another conversion for 16-0.
Not to be left out Carter then joined in the try fest; picking up a neat short pass from Jack Stephenson and twisting over the Thunder try line to touch down just left of the posts, giving himself a simple conversion and a 22-0 lead.
The last score of the first half was Eccleston’s second, set up by a long looping pass from Carter to score another try on the left wing, this one unconverted for a 26-0 lead on the hooter.
Callum Farrer opened the scoring in the second half, the first for Farrer in the professional game, with the the former Wath Brow Hornet and England Community Lion powering his way through the Thunder defence to touch down under the sticks.
Guy Graham, who had been causing Newcastle increasing problems with powerful runs forwards, was next over, charging 20 metres to just make the try line right by the right hand post.
Djeukessi added Town’s eighth try, a carbon copy of his first try and again on the right wing with a simple dot down to finish before Galea finally got his own try, picking up a Thunder knock on and dancing through desperate attempts to block his path to dive in.
Last but not least it was the 10th and final try of the game was Cole Walker Taylor, another former Wath Brow Hornet and England Community Lion, scoring his debut try in the professional game, again converted by Carter for a final scoreline of Workington Town 56 Newcastle Thunder 0.
Workington Town are up to second place in League One on the back of the win, and the other results on the day: Dewsbury Rams defeated Whitehaven 28-14, Swinton Lions triumphed over the Keighley Cougars 30-22, and importantly for Town, the Goole Vikings edged out the Midland Hurricanes 12-13 away,
After the match, head coach Jonty Gorley thought that his side had put in a good performance and did what he had asked after the two previous games against Swinton and Dewsbury, which both ended in defeat.
He added: “We wanted a strong start and we got it, and to be fair to Newcastle, they were a stronger side today that what they have been, they have some experience in there and they have some good players back.
“It was a massive thing to keep them at zero and we talked about that at half time and I think we only gave two penalties away in the second half.
“I think Andy was unlucky not to get man of the match, people can sense his pace, when he gets the ball the crowd are up a bit in anticipation and he got a couple of nice tries, and he’s got pace.”
Gorley also complemented Jamie Doran, saying he was the cleverest rugby player he had ever coached.
Workington face League leaders North Wales Crusaders away in their next outing on Sunday July 6.
