Sport in Carlisle is thriving, with three of the city's main clubs sitting top of their respective leagues.

Carlisle United Football Club, Carlisle Cricket Club and Carlisle Rugby Club have all contributed to a hat-trick to remember for supporters of Carlisle sport.

All three clubs were hit by Storm Desmond last December - but all three have bounced back in incredible style, too.

When the clean-up operation was under way at the cricket club's Edenside ground earlier this year, they could have hardly dreamed for a better season.

But after two seasons in Division One of the North Lancs & Cumbria Cricket League, they will return to the top table next campaign after winning the league.

A remarkable year saw Ben Davidson strike back-to-back home centuries and Alex Raybould make history when he became the club’s first bowler to take all 10 wickets in a match, which were some of the highlights in a superb campaign.

Plans are now being put in place for next year as the club celebrates reaching a major milestone.

"Next year is a big year for us with it being the club's 125th year," secretary Mark Davidson says.

"We have a lot of plans. We have a dinner with Geoff Miller [former England selector] in March."

The club are also hoping to arrange some more special events next year to mark the milestone.

Meanwhile Mark, the father of opener Ben, also praised the development of the majority of the current first-team squad through the club's youth system.

He adds: "One of the major strengths at Carlisle is the development of junior players and it's something I'm very proud of.

"Other than Alex Calmy [the club’s Australian overseas player], all of the Championship-winning 1st XI have progressed through the junior ranks at the club. It's great for the long-term future of the club.”

Overseas Alex Calmy also impressed last season, with bat and ball.

The all-rounder will now be returning to Australia after some time travelling in Europe but the club are not ruling out the possibility he could return for a crack at the Premier Division.

Carlisle Rugby Club retained their spot at the top of the North Lancs Cumbria last weekend, beating Hawcoat Park 46-13.

Dan Holmes, Henry Wainwright, Matty Roper and Thomas Fuller were among the Carlisle try scorers, with Luke Davidson scoring two tries.

New head coach David Stout has made a fantastic impact as the rugby club looks to bounce back from being relegated from North One West at the first time of asking.

Club secretary David Morton says: "It's been a good season for us so far.

"We are nine points clear at the moment, so it would take one of the teams behind us to get two bonus-point wins and us to lose two games for them to catch us up.

"It's good for the city. It's an indication of the will to move on [from Storm Desmond]."

Carlisle United also moved to the top of the League Two table last Saturday, with striker Charlie Wyke scoring a hat-trick to inspire them to a 5-2 win over Mansfield.

That victory moves Keith Curle's Blues to the top of the pile for the first time in his spell in charge at Brunton Park.

It is actually the first time the football club have topped the league since August 2010 when they held a brief lead at the top of League One.

In the six years in between, things have been far from plain sailing for United - both on and off the pitch.

But Curle's appointment in September 2014 has brought about some real improvements on the pitch.

Key summer signings Mike Jones and Nicky Adams - who has only lost one game in 2016 as we head into the start of December and today's FA Cup tie against Rochdale - have bolstered the squad.

While Curle has also managed to get the best out of the likes of Tom Miller, Jason Kennedy and Danny Grainger.

After watching his team go top of the table, Curle instead decided to praise the club's unsung heroes and highlight their work behind the scenes, paying attention to the groundstaff at a particularly poignant time - almost exactly a year on from Storm Desmond, which forced the football club to play 'home' games at Blackpool, Blackburn and Preston.

There has been good news off-the-field recently, with British Reggae band UB40 and Essex popstar Olly Murs both announcing they will perform at Brunton Park next year.

Elsewhere, Penrith AFC will be looking to make their own piece of history this afternoon.

They play Atherton Collieries, looking to make the FA Vase fourth round for the first time.

Cumbria men's tennis team also secured their first winter county cup promotion in 27 years last weekend.

It is their second promotion this year after securing promotion in the summer county cup, as well.