Egremont were given two home fixtures on Saturday – and just one pitch at Bleach Green to play them on.

They were very thankful to Egremont Rangers rugby league club who allowed the seconds match with Ambleside to go ahead at Gillfoot Park.

Off the pitch things went well, as this season’s club sponsor James Fisher Nuclear handed over a new first team kit prior to kick off in a ceremony at the clubhouse.

Having donated the kit, operations manager Mark Burrows then dashed off to take his place in the Egremont second row for what was predicted to be a tough clash against second-in-the-table Keswick.

It looked as though Egremont might upset the form book early on, as wing Callum Aitken crossed for the home side’s opening try in only the second minute of the match.

However this proved to be a fleeting moment of success, as Keswick then took a stranglehold on the game to score three tries of their own in quick succession to put the eventual result beyond doubt by half time.

The visitors were just too powerful up front and, although Egremont battled hard throughout, they were only able to add one further try of their own through fly half Matt Bewsher.

Keswick were able to keep the scoreboard ticking over at regular intervals, however, and the final score-line of 10-39 was generally felt by the large crowd to be a fair reflection of the game given that Egremont had also suffered from having had a player sent off.

At the other end of the town, visitors Ambleside also conceded an early try to the Egremont second team at Gillfoot Park.

Whilst they recovered quickly to score two tries of their own, unlike Keswick they were never able to shake off a tenacious Egremont side in a hard fought game which contained plenty of interest for both spectators.

The teams traded points throughout the match and ended up scoring four tries each, with Ambleside edging the result due to their higher number of successful kicks.

The final score was 22-29 to the visitors.