West Cumbria’s two National League Division One sides enjoyed victories at the weekend.
Although beaten in the Premier Division there were huge positives for Wath Brow after their performance at Hunslet ARLFC.
In Division One Kells maintained their early season-form with a fine 34-4 win at Wigan St Patrick’s, to stay second in the table.
The Whitehaven side had established a 14-0 lead by half-time with tries from Clarke Chambers, Aaron Burns and Eddie Calvin, one of them converted by Ross Gainford.
Although St Patrick’s scored an unconverted try in the first minute of the second-half it didn’t signal a significant fight-back.
Kells gradually took complete control and added four more tries ion the final quarter from Burns, Jacob Hodgson, William Ennis and Chambers, two of them converted by Gainford.
You can hear below what coach Peter Smith thought of the performance:
Egremont Rangers beat visitors Oulton Raiders 34-26 which was a bit closer than might have been expected at half time when the Cumbrians enjoyed a 26-8 advantage.
The first half performance was excellent but the way Oulton came back into the contest will provide coach Danny Barker with food for thought in this week’s training session.
Oulton had actually closed up to within six points before a late penalty by Joe Lewis made certain they would hang on to the match points.
Sam Williams went in for a first half hat-trick while Connor Williams, Lachlan McDowell and Jayden Tyson also crossed but only one goal from Tom Houghton.
After Oulton threatened to get back into it Ben Caine got in for an Egremont try, converted by Houghton and following another fightback by the Raiders, Lewis popped over the final two-pointer.
You can hear what Barker thought of it below:
Wath Brow Hornets were beaten 26-16 at Hunslet but that represented a fine effort by the Cumbrians, who had introduced several members of last season’s Under-16s to the squad.
None looked out of place, either, and it was the way they came back in the second half which will have pleased coach Ian Rooney most of all.
Hunslet led 20-4 at half-time and looked to be on their way to a comfortable victory but the young Hornets stormed back to win the second-half 12-6.
Indeed the home side had struck early scoring 16 points in the opening quarter before Dean Pattinson crossed for an unconverted Hornets’ try.
Another home score before the break gave them a handy interval lead.
But there were some furrowed brows and worried looks among the Hunslet coaching team and fans when Wath Brow came back to within four points.
Matthew Creasey and Devan Sharp scored tries inside a five-minute spell and with Sam Curwen converting both the pressure was on Hunslet.
They did score another converted try on 66 minutes to see it through but they knew they had been in a contest.
You can hear below how much coach Rooney thought about the effort from his youngsters:
