Last updated at 12:00, Monday, 14 May 2012

Distington have never beaten Kells in their club’s history but they came desperately close to ending that particular bogey on Saturday.

Kells just won Cumberland Amateur Rugby League’s First Division match of the day 14-12 but Distington had chances to have taken the spoils.

In the end they were a bit unlucky to go down to the narrow defeat in what was a really good contest.

It was 10-6 to Kells at half-time and although Distington edged the second-half 6-4 they just couldn’t turn things round.

Luke Penrice and Troy Armstrong scored tries for Distington while Scott George kicked two goals. For Kells there were tries from Carl Schofield (2) and David Dickinson and a solitary goal by Ryan Robb.

It was equally closer at Cockermouth where Seaton just edged the points from an 18-16 victory.

The sides were all square 6-6 at half-time and in the end it finished three tries apiece. But whereas Mark Watson put over two kicks for Cockermouth, Miguel Blanco-Charters notched three for Seaton to win the game.

Tom McGee, Scott Burgess and Blanco-Charters scored the Seaton tries with Jordan Skillen, Sean Mumberson and Liam Wild crossing for Cockermouth.

It wasn’t so close at Maryport where the home side beat Hensingham 58-0 but the young Copeland outfit made the home side work hard for their tries and they battled hard for eighty minutes.

Hensingham enjoyed the majority of possession in the opening exchanges, but they could not turn the advantage into points and by half-time were looking at a 24-0 deficit.

Try of the game came from block-busting forward Phil Holliday who capped a fine individual performance with a superb individual score.

The other tries came from Sam Forrester (3), Liam Vickers (2), Scott Akehurst, Mark Lister, Jonathan Burnyeat and Mark Walker.

Hensingham were not helped when Russell Burns had to leave the field with a suspected broken ankle. Hopefully it wasn't as bad as it looked and let’s hope he is back in action soon.

Maryport, who have shown great improvement this year under coach Gary Murdock, will take heart from this performance before next week's derby battle with neighbours Glasson Rangers.

Glasson also warmed-up for that derby with a good away win, beating Wath Brow Hornets 24-10.

It was all square 6-6 at half-time before Glasson pulled away for what was a comfortable win in the end.

Dale Bell and Ryan Campbell scored the Wath Brow tries and Jason Connery converted one.

For Glasson there were tries from John Fiddler (2), Dean Scholey and Chris Tomlinson. Lee Taylor kicked four goals.

The remaining First Division game between Seaton A and Broughton Red Rose is being played on Tuesday.

In Division Two the game between Aspatria and Ellenborough had to be called-off because of a waterlogged pitch.

There were two very close games at Egremont and Kells where the home sides both enjoyed narrow victories.

Egremont Rangers beat Lowca 30-26 in what turned-out to be a remarkable turn-around. At half-time Lowca had built-up a 26-8 lead and it looked as if they might be home and hosed.

But Egremont staged a remarkable recovery and just did enough to get ahead when it mattered.

The six Egremont tries came from Peter Murphy (2), Graham Colley (2), Chris Butler and Jack Murray. James Newton put over three conversions.

For Lowca there were tries for Scott Rooke (2), Dean Haigh, Craig Halligan and Carl Ennis. Rooke put over three conversions.

Kells A beat Flimby 22-16 after being level 6-6 at the break. They won with tries from Callum Rowlandson (2), David Agnew and Tony Burns with three goals from Stephen McCourt.

The Flimby tries were scored by Darren Pape, Danny Fiddler and Grant Underwood. Ricky Holt landed two goals.

Since they announced last month that they were struggling for numbers Frizington have hardly looked back. They won 76-0 at Glasson A with 14 tries, ten of them converted by Dean Armstrong.

Leading the way were Callum McGrady, Kyle Farrell and Adam McGrady with hat-tricks. Also crossing were Armstrong, Phil Flavell, John Close, Craig Branthwaite and Alex Wilson.

The only black mark for Frizington was that near the end Flavell suffered a serious-looking shoulder injury.

In the other Second Division game Clifton Lions were 42-4 winners at Salterbeck, scoring eight tries to one by their hosts.

Connor White got over for Salterbeck but the Lions were rampant, scoring tries through Adam Wright (2), Tony Huddart, Brian Park, Steven Hopper, Mark Dobinson, Bryan Jones and Dan Riddick. Hopper (3) and Huddart (2) supplied the goals.

First published at 11:30, Monday, 14 May 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk