Last updated 10:20, Friday, 07 March 2008

ASPATRIA’S outside chance of promotion from North Two East ended in Halifax where they were pipped 14-13 by Old Crossleyans.

All the points were scored in the first and last quarter and there was a last gasp chance for Aspatria to win it but Mike Scott missed a very difficult penalty kick.

Aspatria had the wind behind them in the first half and they started well, pulling 13-0 clear in the first 20 minutes.

Scott put over two penalties and then, after the backs and forwards had combined sweetly, he broke through to score a try which he converted.

It stayed at 13-0 until the 62nd minute when Old Crossleyans kicked the first of three penalties.

From the third penalty Aspatria’s scrum-half Heinrich Jonker was sent to the sin-bin and that proved crucial.

The home fly-half, built like a prop forward, charged through a couple of tackles to score what proved to be the winning score.

Tomorrow Aspatria entertain Driffield in a game which they had hoped would be a possible promotion-place decider a few weeks ago.

Former Aspatria centre Liam Nicholls started his coaching career at Carlisle with an important victory in the battle to avoid relegation from North Two East.

Nicholls was appointed for the last five matches of the season after the sacking of Jeremy Tiffen and presided from the touchline over a 25-19 home win over Pontefract.

Wigton, who continue their battle with Kirkby Lonsdale and Workington for third spot in North Lancs Cumbria, enjoyed a 24-0 home win over Didsbury Toc H.

Wigton scored all their points in the first half when they had a very strong wind behind them.

Tries were scored by Paul Branthwaite, Paul Brough Tom Gardner (2), Andrew Bell, while Paul Branthwaite kicked two conversions.

Workington weren’t involved in any league rugby on Saturday as they should have played Tarleton who dropped-out before the season started.

Consequently the Zebras won’t have played for two weeks when they visit unbeaten league leaders Blackburn. Wigton travel to St Benedict’s.

Keswick are out in front in the Cumbria League, still sporting a 100 per cent record.

They were made to work for their 38-0 win over Gosforth Greengarth but did produce some of their best rugby for several weeks.

Playing on the school pitch, Keswick were against the wind in the first half and it took a long time for them to embarrass the visitors in defence.

When they did so it was to score the only try of the half as John Hine broke the deadlock with Mark Ireland converting.

In the second half Keswick started to gain the upper-hand and after Ireland kicked a penalty two quick tries from Hine to complete his hat-trick put them in command.

A strong break by Richard Fletcher was well supported by Matty Roper and in turn he found David Ray who went in for his 16th try of the season which Ireland improved.

It was Roper who grabbed the final try when he went on a marauding run with his forwards before taking responsibility and charging through two tackles to score. Ireland converted.

Netherhall beat a strong Aspatria Eagles team 28-6 in atrocious conditions of mud and wind at Bower Park.

Essentially an excellent all-round team display by Netherhall, the visitors’ forwards created the platform again and dominated the battle of the packs for the majority of the game.

All eight forwards were immense, with Lewis Tyson and Ryan Robertson bossing the scrums and Ben Brinicombe having another big game with strong carries and big hits in defence.

After one such run the visitors forced their way into the Aspatria 22 and a scrum was given. Netherhall won it and the tireless Andrew Renney picked up at the back and forced himself over the line with two home defenders hanging on.

Aspatria came back and were awarded a penalty which Jack Clegg kicked and after more good work from the home forwards they were awarded a second penalty which was also kicked for a 6-5 lead.

Netherhall did not panic and a good run by Jonathan Burnyeat saw the Netherhall forwards drive into the 22. Good mauling resulted in the wily veteran hooker Paul Dixon crashing over for a try to give Netherhall the lead which stayed at 10-6 up to the interval.

With the wind behind him in the second half Netherhall’s Paul Atkinson used his boot to good effect, pinning Aspatria back into their own half at every opportunity.

Scrum-half Tony Nicholson put in a brilliant chip to the wing where the speedy Carl Bell raced into the corner and scored a well-rehearsed try.

Straight from the kick off Ian Gorley won the ball and Steven Knowles punched a hole in the home defence before feeding Burnyeat who linked with Tyson before he was brought down and Aspatria infringed. Atkinson put over the kick.

When Andrew Southwell pushed Aspatria back into their 22 Gorley took a clean throw and the ball was moved well Southwell found Atkinson who moved the ball to Bell coming into the line.

There appeared to be nothing on but an outside swerve followed by acceleration saw him beat three defenders to score a brilliant try in the corner.

Late into the game Knowles and Renney linked and the ball was moved once again to the backs where Patterson smashed through the defence and fed Bell. He side-stepped off his right foot and darted between two defenders to accelerate past the full back to score his second hat-trick in three weeks.

It is now four weeks since the side let in a try which is a credit to their determination, organisation and defensive skills

At the Ellis Sports Ground the visitors Creighton eventually won 24-15 after a closely-fought contest with Workington Steelers.

The visitors elected to play with the strong breeze in the first half but they were met with stern resistance from the home team despite having the monopoly on possession and territory.

Dan Greenslade missed a penalty kick and flanker Tim Parkinson had a try disallowed before wing Simon Turner crossed under the posts in the 33rd minute following a strong run by number eight Nick Sunick. Greenslade obliged with the conversion.

Three minutes later Greenslade capitalised on a loose clearance by Workington to cross wide out for an unconverted try to leave the score 12-0 at the break.

Workington strengthened at half-time with experienced substitutions and the game was much more even.

Creighton knew it was important to get the next score and they did so with an excellent score in the 54th minute.

The forwards did well with a catch and drive from a lineout before Gary Trotter put Daniel Dudley through the line with a scissors move. He drew the full-back before passing to the supporting Peter Armstrong who scooted over close to the posts. Greenslade converted.

Workington then hit back with two tries in seven minutes from Gary Montgomery and Matthew Scott to bring them within nine points but Creighton eased away again through Greenslade's second try.

Full back Dean Lambert supported well to supply the finishing pass after another Dudley break through the middle.

Workington were not finished and on the stroke of full time scored a third try from replacement Jason Howarth. They could have been a bit closer because Jonathan Howarth’s three difficult conversions from the touchline were just wide.

Cockermouth were late arriving in Barrow for the second consecutive year when they had to endure the winding coast road journey due to the closure of the A66 after a serious road accident.

The visitors were a little slow to settle into the game and escaped an early scare when the BAE centre failed to score after he was penalised for a double movement.

This seemed to spur Cockermouth into action and they raised their game to put in a superb first half performance.

BAE were thwarted on a couple more occasions by superb tackling from Ashley Irving and Alan Denwood. Eventually they did cross the line after they unexpectedly took a quick tap penalty under the Cockermouth posts. The try was converted.

From that moment, Cockermouth took the initiative to play some fluid attacking rugby. Slick handling saw Denwood brought down just short of the line and minutes later, the same player pounced on a mistake by the BAE backs to break away.

After beating three would-be tacklers, he was eventually brought down in the home side’s 22 metre area.

From the resulting scrum Cockermouth stole one against the head. Ra Thompson picked the ball from the back of the scrum and drove forward. He was quickly supported by the other forwards and the combined force was enough to take the big BAE pack into their in-goal for Thompson to score a fine try and make the score 7-5.

Two minutes later the Cockermouth backs opened up the BAE defence once more.

After some more slick inter-passing and close support play, Denwood scored out wide. A superb touchline conversion by Andrew Skillen gave Cockermouth a 12-7 lead.

An injury to Guy Jeffries, playing his best game to date, meant he had to be replaced by dynamo Mike Hutton, but Cockermouth were in the ascendancy.

When the half did finish, there was a real optimism that Cockermouth could go on and maintain the advantage in the second half.

Unfortunately it started in the worst possible way for Cockermouth as they conceded an equalising try in BAE’s first attack.

Then on 58 minutes they scored the try which effectively won the game for them. BAE cleared the ball from a penalty to within 20 metres of the Cockermouth goal line and cleanly took line-out ball to go on and score in the corner.

Cockermouth never gave up and made BAE work extremely hard to get their final two tries and overall the 29-12 score did flatter the home side.

Wigton Wanderers were unable to raise a team for their Cumbria League trip to Moresby.

Cumbria League games tomorrow include: Cockermouth v Aspatria Eagles, Netherhall v Moresby, Whitehaven v Keswick, Wigton Wanderers v Millom, Gosforth Greengarth v Workington Steelers.