Hensingham won the heavyweight clash in the Regional Cumbria League when they visited Maryport and secured a third successive victory.
Both had gone into the contest with 100% records but it was Hensingham who emerged victorious 40-24.
They proved stronger in the second half after they had turned round locked together at 18-18. It had been something of a half of two halves.
Miller Dalton, Dylan Bragg and Fletcher Holgate scored Hensingham tries in the first half with Bragg converting all three to go 18-0 ahead.
Maryport came back strongly to level with tries by Lewis Moore (2) and Luke Baker, all converted by Moore but in the second half could only add the final try of the game from Keenan Winter, converted by their man of the match Moore.
By then Hensingham had gone clear, scoring four tries, three of them converted by Bragg.
Getting over the Maryport line were their man of the match Noel Branthwaite (2) and Cohen Massey (2).
You can hear below what Hensingham coach Andrew Smith thought of his team’s performance:
And here is what Maryport’s Mark Foster had to say about the game:
There was another West Cumbrian derby in the same league and Ellenborough were emphatic winners 50-18 at Seaton Rangers.
Ellenborough were well on their way to victory by half time when they had established a 28-0 lead.
Jordan Ostle (2), John Todd, Dan Penman and Kai Gilespy went in for tries with four conversions by Rocco Okesene.
They were able to add four more tries in the second-half through Penman, Gilespy, Okesene and Kian Dempsey. Okesene converted two and Gary Tierney also improved one.
Injury-hit Seaton scored tries through Jacob Walker, man of the match Jaiden Tallentire and Nick Burgess with three conversions from Kieran Robinson.
Perhaps typical of Seaton’s ill-luck this season was losing Lewis Mason in the warm-up.
The absence of key players had a knock-on effect and the club had to call off the opening Cumbria Men’s League game for the A team at Hensingham A.
Seaton coach Neil Frazer was away and missed the game but club secretary Peter Gilmour said: “We actually played downhill in the first half when we trailed 28-0 but the lads stuck in well and we only lost the second-half 22-18 which was to their credit.”
You can hear what Ellenborough coach Paul Gorge thought of the game and prospects for the season below:
Distington enjoyed an excellent result when they travelled to Barrow Island and came home on the back of a 31-12 victory.
The home side’s tries came from Cameron Currie and Adam Ford with conversions by Finn Dutton and Currie.
The club sponsors awarded Currie the man of the match while Distington singled out Ford who had only returned from Australia in mid-week.
The Distington tries came from Jessie Joe Parker (2), Jaiden Hewer, Scott Rooke and Callum Fox. Hewer converted five and Scott George added a field goal.
Ryan Hodgson has taken over as head coach from Aiden Worthington and this was a very encouraging result after a narrow defeat by Seaton Rangers last week.
You can hear what he thought of the performance below:
One game had to be called off in the league as Hindpool Tigers were unable to field a team for the game at Dalton due to a large crop of injuries.
That left the South Cumbrian clash between Millom and Ulverston which was won impressively by the Woollybacks 52-6.
Tosh Winfield, the Ulverston coach, said: “Millom were very good, playing expansive rugby for the full 80 minutes.
“We played our hearts out and each played gave their very best. Max Nisbet scored our points with a try and a conversion.”
Millom had led 28-0 at half-time with tries from Tom Askew (2), Nial Harris, Hadley Thompson and Dom O’Brien with four conversion by man of the match Jonty Peters.
In the second-half there were further tries from Hayden Jackson (2), Thompson and Jonathan Hodgson, all converted by Peters.
You can hear what coach Brad Crellin thought about Millom’s performance below:
