Early Cumbria Conference pacemakers Hensingham slipped to a second successive defeat when they went down 28-22 at home to Distington.
The visitors had raced into a 12-0 lead before Luke Charlton went over for a Hensingham try and Dylan Bragg converted. It stayed 12-6 to Distington at the break.
Distington stretched their advantage on the restart with a converted try before Jay Weatherill hit back with an unconverted try for the hosts.
Another converted try for Distington stretched their lead to 14 points but Nick Maudling went over for a try and Bragg converted to bring them closer.
The fifth Distington try, which went unconverted, kept them in the driving seat and although Hensingham scored the final try of the night through Fletcher Holgate, converted by Bragg it was too late to affect the result.
The Distington tries came from man of the match Jack Penrice (2), Robbie Joe Worthington (2) and Kieran Worthington. Jaiden Hewer kicked four goals.
Former Workington Town and Whitehaven forward Jordan Thomson was man of the match for Hensingham.
You can hear below the comments of Hensingham coach Andrew Smith:
Here’s what Distington coach Ryan Hodgson had to say:
There was another eagerly anticipated clash at Maryport where the home side entertained Millom and went down to a 32-16 defeat.
Another slow start by Maryport saw Millom take an early lead with an unconverted try by Ricky Donoghue but it proved to be one of his last acts as he broke his arm in a tackle soon afterwards.
The home team did come back well to lead 12-4 with tries from Lewis Moore and Keenan Winter, both converted by Moore.
But Millom, with Andrew Dawson to the fore, swept back to lead 22-12 by half-time and threatened to pull away.
Dom O’Brien and Daniel Hartley (2) added tries, all converted by Jackson Evans.
But young winger Tyler Chilton scored a third try for Maryport, which went unconverted, and that was as close as they came with Millom finishing strongly to earn the points. Hadley Thompson scored two further tries for the Woollybacks and Evans converted one of them.
Maryport coach Mark Foster gives his thoughts below:
Millom’s Brad Crellin shares his verdict below:
The other games were not so close with big wins for league leaders Dalton (82-4 against Seaton); Barrow Island (80-16 against Hindpool) and Ellenborough (68-10 at Ulverston).
Dalton are looking good and they swept Seaton away in the first-half to establish a 58-0 at the break.
Coach Paul Armstriong said: “We were really pleased with a very efficient performance after we had made an excellent start with some strong running straight from kick off.”
It led to hooker Isaac Maclean spotting a gap in the retreating line on play three with full back Ross Bird pushing through after a neat pass from half back Harry Gordon to streak away for the opening try.
A penalty on the next set saw stand off Conor Grant almost broke the line but it was Bird on the scoresheet again after slicing through on the right from another Gordon pass.
Another smart spot from Maclean saw him break the defensive line again with back row Ben Ashburner in support to off-load to Bird for his hat-trick.
Quick rucks from props Ewan Costa and Jordan Jones saw Dalton in the Seaton half again but a knock on from the visitors, looking for the interception, saw Bird take the ball from the scrum before finding centre Tom Farren to score in the left corner.
Young winger Rio York, on his first team debut, was tested from the kick but returned well and after some good yardage and a lucky bounce from a charge down Grant went close again before loose forward Shane Sanderson forced his way over.
An obstruction in the play gave Seaton their first real possession but the goal line defence held firm.
Forward Ben Atkinson was next to score after a good line break 30 metres out before rounding the full back to go under the sticks.
With Seaton struggling to get any real field position the home side had a couple of repeat sets in their half where Bird found some space on the right before offloading to centre Dan Knott to score in the right corner.
A smart dummy at the line from Gordon and a short ball from Atkinson in support saw them under the sticks again before Maclean found space around the ruck again to scamper over beating three defenders in the process.
Good handling down the left edge then saw Farren make a half break with Bird in support for his fourth of the day before Seaton kicked out on the full to put back into attack again where another interception attempt was knocked on.
From the resulting scrum the ball was shifted left for Gordon to find Bird who then weaved his over for his fifth and 58-0 half time score.
Seaton upped their game following the break and some ill-discipline from Dalton early in the restart gave them easy metres and repeat sets but good running from
Niall Maudsley saw Gordon and Grant link up to hit Ashburner on a good line to score next to the posts.
Another penalty from Dalton and pressure led to Seaton finding space for a good kick to the corner with the winger Jack Morgan finishing well under pressure.
It was business as usual for Dalton when Maclean was next to score under the posts and when they forced a turnover scored again through Jones.
A loose ball in midfield was swept up by half back Grant who broke 30 metres before finding Ashburner in support for his second try and round off the game. Man of the match was Ross Bird with a 42-point tally.
Seaton coach Neil Frazer said: “We were embarrassing. I’ve never seen a first-half like that before. We never touched the ball for 20 minutes and had two sets the whole half.”
Ellis Archer, on dual registration from Barrow Raiders, led the way for Barrow Island with four tries and 12 successful kicks out of 14 conversion attempts. Cameron Currie also chipped in with a hat-trick of tries.
Jack Osman, Tom Heighton and Sam Beattie scored the Hindpool tries with two conversions from Beattie.
Ellenborough continued their decent run of form with their win at Ulverston which produced 11 tries, all converted by man of the match Rocco Okesene who added a penalty.
Jordan Ostle (2), Louis Fearon (2), Kai Gilhespy (2), Niall Gray, Daniel Penman, Luke Broster, Luke Jackson and Ryan Wilson all crossed for the tries.
The Ulverston points came from two tries by Johnny Hutton and a conversion by Alex Grimshaw.
Hear Ellenborough’s Paul Gorge’s views below:
