Last updated 19:41, Thursday, 24 April 2008

WORKINGTON clinched third in the North Lancs Cumbria League when they beat Upper Eden 28-20 at Kirkby Stephen.

Cockermouth's Andrew Skillen

Although it was the final game of the season for both teams they threw the ball around in exciting fashion and Workington, in particular, scored some excellent tries.

Yet Upper Eden had come out of the blocks quick and in the opening quarter opened-up a 10-0 lead with a penalty and converted try.

Gradually Workington started to make inroads and by half-time they had established a 14-10 advantage.

Ryan Dobie squeezed over in the corner and then the centre showed his class by slicing through the home defence for a breathtaking try. Kevin Harper converted both.

Workington scored two more tries to take a stranglehold on the game and both were excellent touchdowns.

Backs and forward combined superbly to create a try for Jason Howarth and then more good work by the pack saw the ball finally spread along the backs and quick hands put Bede O’Connor over. Harper converted both.

Upper Eden rallied in the closing stages and made it interesting. They spread the ball well and scored two unconverted tries.

Zebras team manager Kevin O’Neil said: “We played some good stuff to round off the season on a high. We are all delighted to have finished third in the table.

“Ryan Dobie is starting to show his class now after settling into the team, and he deservedly won our man of the match award.”

Aspatria completed their league programme with a 25-10 home defeat by Durham City who had already clinched a promotion play-off place.

Although there was nothing at stake for the Black Reds they wanted to build up momentum for tomorrow’s Story Cumbria Cup final at Penrith against all-conquering Kendal.

President Mel Hanley said: “I’m afraid we were very sloppy and there will have to be a big improvement against Kendal.”

It was pretty even for the first 15 minutes but in their first sustained attack Durham City went ahead with a penalty.

Then some careless defending, in dealing with a kick-through, resulted in Durham City scoring an unconverted try.

Then when a second try followed Aspatria had their best spell of the half and Mike Scott reduced the arrears with a penalty.

The Black Reds had the breeze behind them in the second half but didn’t help their cause by conceding an early try.

When a scrum was wheeled in the Durham City 22 the ball popped up and their winger scooped up to race the full-length.

On 55 minutes Aspatria were given a chance when Gary Hodgson, who was their best forward throughout, made a fine break. He had support from Adrian Bateson who put Lee Tinnion over for the try which Scott converted.

There was plenty of time for Aspatria to win the game but they continued to be sloppy in attack and they were unable to get through again.

The final nail was hammered in the coffin when City put together a good backs move near the end and scored a converted try.

Aspatria will have noted that Kendal beat Sheffield Tigers 43-0 on Saturday to complete the North One season with a 100 per cent record.

Netherhall won their last home Cumbria League game to secure second and to go into the promotion play-offs against Burnley.

They beat Egremont 31-15 at Maryport in what turned out to be a game of two contrasting halves because of a strong gusty wind.

The home side started well with strong forward pressure which forced Egremont back into their 22. From the ruck Ben Brinicombe made a strong run down the middle before feeding Jonathan Burnyeat who was pulled down short of the line.

The ball was moved blind by Andrew Southwell to big powerful winger Andrew Patterson who crashed over in the corner. Paul Atkinson put over a fine conversion.

Egremont were soon back in their own 22 following big raking kicks from Atkinson and Carl Philips.

Ian Gorley, having another fine game in the line, took one against the throw and the forward drive was used well by props Lewis Tyson and Ryan Robertson.

Egremont’s defence was split when Steven Knowles made a break to feed Gorley and he raced 30 metres for a try which Atkinson converted.

Egremont came back and worked their way into the home 22 and were awarded a penalty which full back Jack Kelly kicked to make it 14.3.

From the kick-off Netherhall were awarded a penalty just inside their half. Atkinson opted to have long-range kick which was successful.

The last five minutes of the half saw the home forwards camped on the visitors’ line. Another big run by Brinicombe was stopped by a last ditch tackle.

Netherhall won the scrum and mauled towards the line where Lee Towers, who was having an excellent game, drove over for a try which Atkinson again converted for a 24-3 half-time lead.

The second half was played similar to the first but this time it was Egremont who were kicking with the wind and putting Netherhall back into their 22.

From one such kick the ball was won back and moved across the backs for winger Glyn Butler to score an unconverted try.

Not long after that Kelly made a break and managed to beat two defenders to score a good try which he converted to close the gap to 24-15.

Netherhall have an impressive defensive record this year and it needed to be as Egremont sensed a shock. It needed some terrific defensive work by the back row of Andrew Renney, Knowles and Burnyeat to deny the visitors another score.

The game was settled when Andrew Branthwaite made a break and fed Simon Irving who was having another good game. He fed on to Patterson who brushed aside three defenders on his 30-metre run to score. Atkinson put over the conversion.

Keswick completed their programme with a 36-7 win at BAE Barrow to go through the season unbeaten. The champions dropped only one point in a home draw with Millom.

They went in front with a penalty from Mark Ireland but were then under the cosh as the home forwards gave a strong account of themselves.

It was no surprise when BAE grabbed the lead with a converted try and put Keswick under a lot of pressure.

Gradually, however, they came back and by half-time had established a 25-7 lead. Great long kicks from Brian Storey, John Hine and Mark Ireland turned defence into attack with the big wind behind them.

Quick line-out ball enabled Ireland to slice through for their opening try which gave them the lead and they built on that.

They were awarded a penalty try after Hine was obstructed going in and Ireland added the conversion. Ireland kicked another penalty and then Hine followed up a chip over the home defence to score a try which Ireland converted.

BAE had the wind in the second half but once Keswick had held their early response there was a chance to re-establish control. Good work by David Ray and Richard Fletcher helped set up a second try for Hine and Ireland picked up a loose ball after a great tackle from Michael Branthwaite and raced 75 metres to score the last try which he improved himself.

Cockermouth continued their run of improved performances and were 22-5 winners over Workington Steelers.

The home side put Steelers on the back foot from the kick off when they were awarded a penalty when a quick tap by John Taylor led to a further infringement.

As a result Andrew Skillen stepped up to give the home side a 3-0 advantage with a successful kick.

On 22 minutes after some good work by the forwards, Skillen received quick ball and rounded the defence to score in the corner.

Another Skillen penalty gave the home side an 11-point cushion but they didn’t have things all their own way.

On 32 minutes, after pinning back Cockermouth in their own 22 and after some good driving work by the forwards, they scored a try out wide through Paul Monkhouse.

On the stroke of half-time Cockermouth looked as though they might score a similar try themselves but strong defending kept them out.

The Steelers played a big part in making this an entertaining game by trying to play open rugby, but this back fired slightly when they tried to run the ball wide from their own 22.

After a knock-on, and then a scrum, they conceded a penalty which Skillen duly converted. Minutes later Stuart Moore set off from his own 22 on an inspired run which ended in him being tackled five metres from the Steelers’ line.

Cockermouth increased their lead when they upped the tempo and took a series of quick tap penalties. Stephen Richardson, in his comeback game, was on hand to crash over.

The Steelers never gave up and made the home pack work extremely hard to gain any advantage. Once again Wayne Kavanagh was outstanding in the loose for Cockermouth.

On 78 minutes Skillen took his personal tally to an impressive 17 points when he knocked over another penalty.

Wigton Wanderers lost 36-17 at home to Creighton.

Aspatria Eagles beat an unstrength Millom but only by 14-12 though Millom had three possible tries ruled out by the referee because he couldn’t see the grounding.

Either side of half-time Aspatria had taken the lead when the Millom defence failed to number up on the blind side and allowed the home stand-off Walter Cloete to go in under the posts. Cloete also landed the conversion.

The other Eagles try came when a vicious bounce meant the ball landed into the hands of Colin Noble who scored half way between the posts and touchline. He added the conversion himself.