January 19, 2001

HENSINGHAM won a tight division one battle at home to a battling Egremont side in heavy conditions.

A try either side of the half-time break sealed the two points for Hensingham in a game where mistakes were high and both sides struggled to keep possession.

Egremont put the first points on the board after 25 minutes when Darren Block slotted over a conversion to put the visitors in the lead, but that was to be the only time they got on the scoreboard.

Glyn Hyslop moved Hensingham into the lead on their own turf when he crashed over two minutes before the break, no conversion was added and at half-time the scoreline was 4-2.

Craig McAvoy stood out for Hensingham and six minutes after the restart he got himself on the scoresheet when he crossed the whitewash, again unconverted, to put Hensingham 8-2 ahead and that was the way it remained until the final whistle.

Kells shot off to a 10-0 half-time lead at Ellenborough Rangers and things looked good for the Copeland side, hoping to put one over their rivals.

But it was not to be as a resurgent Rangers appeared in the second-half and scored 22 unanswered points to make sure of the victory, thanks to outstanding efforts from Eddie Robinson and Peter Bewick.

Two Ian Brannon tries and a Dean Bragg conversion left Kells in the ascendancy at half-time but just eight minutes after the break a brilliant individual try from Eddie Robinson pushed Ellenborough back into the game and then there was no stopping them. Phil Brown was the next to score, crashing over for a try, both converted by Paul McGee.

Ellenborough were now dominant and all that remained was for Craig Moore to grab a try on 71 minutes, quickly followed by Brown's second three minutes before the whistle and McGee added the extras to take Ellenborough into a 22-10 winning lead.

St Nicholas proved they are a tough nut to crack at home and Westfield found out just how hard when they went down to the Carlisle based side 20-8.

Former Workington Town player, Craig Stalker was the first over the tryline at Gillford Park and Andy Sawyers tagged on the extras to put Saints in the lead. This was followed by a try from Alan McDermott, again Sawyers converting. Westfield's only reply at half-time being two Mark Rooke penalty goals to leave the score 12-4 to St Nichs.
A Carl Higgins try early in the second-half sealed the game for the home side but Westfield proved they don't go down without a fight as they came back to score through Ryan Blair.

But the last word came from Stalker as he crossed the whitewash once more to ensure the two points stayed in Carlisle.

Seaton dominated their clash at Wigton, showing they have not given up hope of a top four place yet, beating their opponent 16-32.

In an all-round good first half performance Seaton ran in tries through Rod Turnbull, Mark Taylor, Ben Steele and Paul West, with Duncan Moyle chipping in with two goals to take them in at the break with a 20-0 lead.

But after the break Seaton eased off the gas a little and Wigton came back into the game with tries from Paul Southward, Dean Haney and Paul Wiggins, plus two goals from Justin Bennett.

Realising they still had work to do, Seaton rallied and added three further tries to make sure of the game through Andy McGlasson, Craig Humphries and Duncan Moyles.

In division two, Lowca came out on the winning side in their clash against Flimby but referee, Steve Bright had words of encouragement for the Flimby side.

He said that Flimby had done very well in the game and he wanted to thank both teams for the spirit the game was played in and how well he was treated after the game. But the result still went to Lowca at 12-56, mainly thanks to a hat-trick from David Colley, plus a brace from Phil Anderson.

Flimby battled bravely, keeping the score down to 8-18 in the first half thanks to two tries, one apiece to Lee Williams and Craig Miller. But their only reply in the second half was two penalty goals from Gary Hine.

Lowca's other try scorers were Simon Milligan, Richard Haile, Gary Haile, Lee Allen and Lee Weighman, who also slotted over eight goals.

A try and conversion for Alan Cartwright plus a Steven Cameron try had Maryport 0-10 in the lead when they travelled to meet Distington in the division two clash on Saturday.

Edwin Dockwray replied for Distington after the break but a further try from John Pattinson and an Alan Cartwright conversion sealed the win at 4-16 for Maryport.

The clash of the day in division two was between Great Clifton and Penrith. The lead swung back and forth during the game which went right down to the wire.

Penrith took the lead with a Darren Luck try and, despite chances for both sides, that was the way it stayed until half-time.

Then a brace from Gary Mewse, plus a Wayne Walker conversion swung the game 10-4 in Clifton's favour. But Penrith were not giving up and Luck scored his second try, followed by a try from Stuart Knubley that Craig Johnstone converted.

This left the scores at 10-14 in the visitors favour and the game hotted up as Brian Park grabbed the equaliser, crossing the whitewash for Clifton. It was all down to Wayne Walker and he coolly slotted over the conversion to give the win to Clifton.

Neither Wath Brow team got a game in this weekend as the first team were due to travel to Glasson but the match was called off due to an unfit pitch and the second team were due to host Salterbeck Storm but the visitors could not raise a team.

Alliance games between Egremont A and Hensingham A, and Kells A versus Glasson A were both cancelled due to the pitches being unplayable.