Carlisle Rugby Club take a welcome break for two weeks, having established themselves at the top of the North One West table.

They signed off with a 42-17 win in Ellesmere Port against Anselmians and go into the free fortnight with a two-point lead over Birkenhead Park.

Stockport take on Douglas tomorrow in their catch-up game from one which was postponed earlier in the season when the Isle of Man team suffered mechanical problems with their aircraft.

A five-point win would put Stockport second alongside Birkenhead Park, so also two points behind the Cumbrians.

Carlisle hadn’t been overly impressive in their win over Broughton Park the previous week but they made up for it some way with a comfortable success against the league newcomers.

It was virtually over at half-time with Carlisle enjoying a 28-3 lead with tries from Ben Purdham, Christian White, Grant Connon and skipper Henry Wainwright. Connon tacked on the extras.

Carlisle though, were continuously getting pinged in the scrum, and a change in tight-heads seemed to settle things down. Clearly an aspect of play that Carlisle will have to work on.

Purdham’s second try early in the second half should have killed off the Anselmians challenge but the hosts responded quickly with a converted try and continued to have a good spell.

They weren’t able to convert that into points and, from an interception, Carlisle winger Shaw Lorimer-Bell went in for his side’s sixth try. The only other score was another converted try for Anselmians.

A number of injuries caused Carlisle to rejig their line-up and it broke their flow somewhat, as they struggled to reproduce the form shown in the first half.

That said, all the replacements played their part when given their opportunities but all round, with some tired and bruised bodies, Carlisle will enjoy the break before they entertain Warrington on October 13.

Likewise Penrith, who have had their selection issues in the first month of the season, will also hope a fortnight’s break gives time for injuries to heal and unavailabilities to be sorted.

A 38-34 home win over De La Salle wasn’t vintage but it was valuable as they signed off before hosting Birkenhead Park on October 13.

Against their Salford visitors, they were left licking their wounds but they had come back from three scores down and had secured the bonus point win they were looking for at the beginning of the afternoon.

They hadn’t done it as they would have wanted to and they will know they must improve massively if they are to match a big Birkenhead Park side in a week’s time.

Penrith were abysmal in the first half and trailed by 19 points at the break and then played rather better in the second half and redeemed themselves eventually running out narrow winners.

From a Penrith point of view, there was only one piece of play to report on in the first half and that was the deceptive running of Jamie McNaughton as he glided between defenders, threw the suggestion of a dummy and changed direction to beat at least half a dozen defenders to score a brilliant individual try under the posts.

De La Salle scored four tries in the first half to lead 26-7 and this was a side that had no wins and not even a bonus point out of their first four league games.

After what must have been a stern half-time team talk, Penrith started the second half much better and got on the front foot to whittle away the De La Salle advantage.

McNaughton (2) and Ed Swale scored tries and they were only two points adrift before the visitors kicked a penalty.

Jon Fell scored a try, converted by Matt Allinson, to put them ahead for the first time at 31-29.

Penrith looked to have sealed it with five minutes to go when Dan Greenwood scored and Allinson converted but there were some late concerns after the final try of the game by De La Salle allowed them to collect two bonus points which they fully deserved.

In the Cumbria League, there were wins for Keswick and Wigton to keep them first and second but Cockermouth continue to be the surprise packages and lie third, while Aspatria complete the top four.

It’s proving to be a competitive league and there will be more close encounters before the teams split into two sections – the top four and the bottom four for six more matches.

Last year’s old-style Cumbria League was won by Upper Eden and they were the latest team to be surprised by Cockermouth as they lost at home 26-8.

Keswick continued their winning start to the season with a comfortable 54-12 win over bottom side Hawcoat Park.

They have scored 124 points in their three games so far and conceded 47.

It was pretty comfortable against the league’s bottom side who have now shipped 142 points in their three games.

James Benson, Andy Muir, Ollie MacPherson, Brian Storey and Danny Price scored first-half tries to help them into a 33-7 lead at the break.

Ryan Weir, Any Wallace and George Holme scored further tries in a more subdued second half as Keswick seemed to accept that they had won the game long before the end.

A wayward conversion with the last kick of the game denied Whitehaven what would have been a deserved losing bonus point as Aspatria squeezed home with a 21-13 win at the Playground.

Most of the day’s action took place between two sets of highly committed forwards but victory relied upon two moments of brilliance from Aspatria full-back Ken Bowes which earned him tries, enough to snatch the points for the visitors. Gary Hodgson scored the third Aspatria tries while Jack Clegg kicked two penalties.

Wigton scored a convincing 43-15 win at St Benedict’s to make amends for their derby defeat a week earlier.

It means Wigton hold second place, five points behind Keswick, and with a better soring differential than Cockermouth.

David Hanabury, Josh Leeson and Sam Harrison scored first-half tries for the Greens to help them into a 19-0 lead at the break.

Elliott Armstrong scored the bonus point try before Benny’s replied with two unconverted tries.

Skipper Greg Wrathall, Sam Harrison and Hanabury completed the scoring for Wigton with Benny’s grabbing a third unconverted try as way of consolation.

There’s only one game arranged in the Cumbria League tomorrow and that’s the derby clash at the Playground between Whitehaven and St Benedict’s.