Egremont Rangers made it three wins out of three games in the National Conference Premier Division.

But this one was the most significant so far as they beat last year’s league winners Siddal.

They went on to lose the Grand Final to Thatto Heath.

It was nip-and-tuck, though, for a long way with Egremont eventually finishing on top 24-12 with two late tries from winger Fraser McNee proving decisive.

Siddal also paid the price for having second-row forward Ben Hinsley sin-binned early in the second half.

It was during his absence that Egremont got one of their five tries through Kieran Glenn.

Egremont had trailed 12-10 at half-time after conceding a late penalty, put over by Gareth Blackburn.

He had earlier scored a try himself, and added the conversion after Sam Walsh had scored an early unconverted try.

Egremont had scored first-half tries through stand-off James McDonald and substitute prop Tom Horner, one of which was converted by Matt Bewsher.

It was while Hinsley was in the bin mulling over his yellow card for repeat offending that Egremont took the lead.

Glenn crashed over and Bewsher converted for a 16-12 lead and Siddal were unable to add to their tally.

McNee finished things off nicely with two unconverted tries in the last 10 minutes and picked up the man-of-the match award.

Egremont share the lead with newly-promoted Hunslet Club Parkside, but the Cumbrians have a seven-point pull on the scoring differential.

Parkside were 13-4 winners up the road at Wath Brow to maintain their fine start to the season.

They have already beaten Wath Brow in the Challenge Cup so the Hornets knew they would be a tough nut to crack.

It was a hard contest with all the points coming in the first half.

Stand-off Ryan Gaunt opened the scoring on eight minutes with a try which was converted by Jamie Fields.

It took a further 20 minutes for the Hornets to open their account which they did with an unconverted try from Cole Walker-Taylor.

But back came Parkside and, despite having second-row forward Liam Thompson in the bin for dissent, scored again with a try from full-back Craig McShane, converted by man-of-the-match scrum-half Danny Rowse.

It was Rowse who edged them into a nine-point lead with a drop goal right on the half-time whistle.

Defences ruled supreme in the second half despite the best efforts of Wath Brow’s man-of-the-match Nathan Lucock. A big finish from Kells carried them to a 40-18 win over bottom side Wigan St. Patrick’s.

After 50 minutes, the visitors led 18-16 but didn’t score another point as Kells pulled away with four more tries.

Earlier Troy Armstrong, Craig Benson and Danny Dougherty had scored tries for Kells, two of them converted by Ross Gainford.

St Pat’s had led with tries from Jamie Bristoe, Mike Scrivens and Phil Glover, all converted by James Ratcliffe.

In a pulsating conclusion to the game, Kells scored tries through Scott Lofthouse, Paul Cullnean, Tyrone Dalton and Grant McLaughlin. Two of those were converted by substitute Grant Gainford.