Cumbria Rugby Union stages the County Cup final today at Aspatria in a clash between Keswick and Kendal.
The two last met in the 2018/19 season when Kendal won 32-15 at Davidson Park in the County Cup and previously had a much easier cup passage with a 64-0 win at Mint Bridge.
But you have to go back to 1968 before the advent of league rugby for the last regular meeting between the two of them, with the original fixture in 1905.
It’s a special game for the Keswick player-coach Garry Holmes, who played over 300 games for Kendal before joining Keswick as coach in 2022.
He’s done a splendid job, too, at Davidson Park where Keswick have consolidated year by year and still have a chance of reaching a play-off game for a place alongside Kendal in Regional 1 North East – which would be a remarkable achievement.
Holmes, and current Kendal coach Dan Bowman, are team-mates both at Mint Bridge and for Cumbria so will know their opponents’ preferred style of operating.
Like Holmes, former Workington coach Bowman has done a very good job at Mint Bridge after inheriting a young squad which retained their league place and have consolidated this time round.
Kendal make only two changes to the side which lost narrowly at Driffield last week with the return of Joe Anderson and Aaron Stephens, replacing Dane Blenkharn and Alistair Thompson.
Two extra places on the bench see Evan Beattie and Liam Barr coming in to make it a very young replacement supply alongside Johnny Swallow and Tommy Scanlan, with Ben Leacock adding a bit of experience.
For Keswick coach Holmes will start at hooker while there’s also another big Mint Bridge favourite Glen Weightman at stand-off. Joe Allday, another ex-Kendal player is on the bench.
It’s another big day for full-back Dan Craghill as his game against Sunderland last week took the family tally to 2,000 appearances.
The kick-off at Bower Park is at 3pm and Andrew Shaw, a Cumbrian referee at RFU National League level 4 will be the man with the whistle.
Archie Harding and Jonny Watson will be his touch judges and Martin Maughan will be the fourth official.
