Cumbria Men’s League First Division clash at Sandy Lonning produced 70 points between the two sides involved – and was a cracker.
Aspatria Hornets came out on top 40-30 but it was the best effort this season from hosts Glasson Rangers.
Chris Broadley, a member of the Glasson coaching team said: “As a group we asked for a response from the previous week-end and we got that massively.
“The effort the lads made was immense against a team that are unbeaten in the league this season.
“There’s a couple of areas we need to work on but these are minimal things.
“Ewe had 12 lads unavailable and still got 18 players out on the field so we are heading in the right direction..
“Brad Oglanby was man of the match but anyone of a number of players could have taken the plaudits.”
The Glasson tries were scored by Shane Williams, former Aspatria player Luke Johnson, Connor Wilson and John Dollochin. Johnson (2) and Greg Rowley (1) kicked the goals.
Glasson had led 16-12 at half-time but Aspatria had a purple patch scoring three tries in the first 15 minutes of the second half to establish a 14 point lead.
But going into the last nine minutes it was just 34-30 to the Hornets until the visitors scored a converted try to pull them 10 points clear.
David Wilson, starting his first game for several years, scored an impressive hat-trick of tries with the others coming from man of the match Keanan Foster, Mark Irwin, Francis Dicon and Ben Tootill. There were also six out of seven conversions from Tootill.
Tightest game was at Highfield where Cockermouth Titans lost 18-12 to Askam with Regan Tinnion scoring a try and kicking two goals for the hosts. Cameron Harrison scored the other Titans try and took man of the match.
Tom Wilkinson (2) and Rob Cockayne scored the Askam tries with three goals from Harrison Laing.
Liam McAvoy, the Cockermouth coach said: “I thought we were poor and couldn’t get into it. As the game progressed we seemed to panic and lost patience when we were trying to build pressure
“They have Tom Wilkinson back and he seems to have attracted other handy players back to the club. I played with Tom at Whitehaven and he’s good.”
It was almost as close in the south Cumbrian derby as Dalton A won 34-22 at Millom A.
Highlight for Dalton was a try and man of the match performance from stand-off Ryan Baines who was playing his first game since 2023 after a long recovery from a complex injury.
The other tries came from Mason Laisby, Elliot Jackson, Toby Conaghan, Harry Hughes and Elliot Wilkinson, who also kicked five goals.
Jamie McQuire (2), Ryan Craghill and Jude Jones scored the Millom tries, with Callum Lamont kicking three goals.
Kells A, who have been experiencing a slow start to th season, were among the points against a young Flimby side as they won 60-12.
Ashton Sice led the way scoring four of his side’s 11 tries. The others were from Jamie Reay, Dylan Telford, Kieran Halcrow, James Ennis, Ben Stephenson, Joseph Moore and Kai Rutherford. Ryan Woods kicked eight goals.
Flimby scored tries through Phil Flavell and Brandon Tallantire with a conversion apiece from Flavell and Dan Weir.
Egremont A are on a good run of form and that continued with a 54-10 win at Hensingham A.
Luke Charlton and Gary Hanlon scored tries for Hensingham, with one converted by Travis Fyfe.
For free-scoring Egremont there were tries from Nathan Preston (3), Leon Crellin (2), Dylan Biggins (2), Sam Dixon, Tom Elliott and Dillon Nichols-Scott.
Wath Brow Hornets A were too strong for Roose Pioneers as they won 40-8 but the south Cumbrians put up a dogged display.
Isaac Scott (2), Greg Rooney, Logan Fowler, Graeme Mattinson, Jenson Olstrom, Jamie Sharpe and Jake Greenhough scored the tries. Rooney and Olstrom kicked two goals each.
Roose’s tries came from Glenn Phillips and Jack Wilkinson.
