The Cumberland Cup is more than 100 years old and worth more than £30,000.

But it won’t concern Seaton Rangers that they only have a replica in the clubhouse following Saturday’s enthralling 6-4 win over Distington.

League secretary Lorraine Degraff said: “Because of its value, the winners are presented with the trophy on the day, but the league retain it and the winning club takes away a replica.”

Seaton, who first won the trophy in 1903 and whose last win was three years ago, deserve enormous credit for the hard-earned victory.

They had gone into the final at Hensingham very much the outsiders, short of match practice after Distington had beaten the league champions a week earlier in the Grand Final.

But the Allerdale side toughed it out to snatch victory in what was best described in the local vernacular as “an absolute belter of a final”.

Following Friday’s rain, the ground was extremely heavy in places and conditions under foot, at both ends, were fairly greasy. But those handicaps only served to produce an epic encounter between two evenly matched teams.

Both sides went at it full throttle from the start, with no quarter asked or given.

Despite enterprising, attacking rugby from both teams, the respective defences were sound and largely impenetrable.

It wasn’t until the last minute of the first half that the first points were put on the board.

Distington decided to quickly move the ball wide on the third tackle and Clayton Sutton dived for the line right beside the corner flag and managed to touch down despite being surrounded by several defenders.

His touchline conversion attempt fell short but Distington went in at half-time with a narrow 4-0 advantage.

The second half started like the first with both sides having their moments in attack.

Aiden Worthington made inroads for Distington while veterans Matthew Tunstall and Duncan Moyle were prominent for Seaton.

Respective full-backs Lewis Mason and Stephen Conway took everything that was thrown at them, and once again, the defence from both teams was exemplary.

The vital score came in the 63rd minute when Seaton were camped on the Distington line. On the last tackle, the ball came out to Jonathan Dawes who timed his pass to Steve Newall perfectly.

He raced into the corner in exactly the same spot as the earlier Distington try.

It left Mark Walker with a difficult conversion but he kept a cool head to slot over a superb conversion which gave Seaton the lead with just less than a quarter of the game left.

Distington pressed hard but the Seaton defence just would not budge and saw it through to the final whistle.

Distington’s Worthington won the award for the official man of the match.

Wath Brow and Kells will have it all to do again this Saturday after their clash at Red Beck.

The Hornets won 18-10 to finish third in the National Conference Premier Division after leapfrogging Rochdale Mayfield.

Kells remain sixth and, as such, will have to go back to Wath Brow this weekend to contest the Championship play-offs.

Mayfield will entertain West Hull in the other play-off tie.

Kells had actually taken the lead with an unconverted try by Reece O’Neill but it was Wath Brow who had a 6-4 advantage at the break, courtesy of a try and conversion by Cole Walker-Taylor.

The hosts then pulled away to lead 18-4 by the 52nd minute as Walker-Taylor and Peter Caddy both scored tries. Walker-Taylor improved both.

Kells did gain some consolation with a try 11 minutes from the end by Lewis Wilson, converted by Ross Gainford, but Wath Brow held on.