Hensingham stayed top of the Cumbria Men’s League but it was touch and go after a narrow victory over Glasson Rangers.

It finished 38-34 but a strong Glasson team was always in contention and the game could have gone either way.

A splendid contest was overshadowed by a horrific injury to one of the Hensingham players, Sean Dixon, in the first five minutes when he suffered a severely broken ankle.

Glasson’s gesture afterwards shows what the game and the Rugby League community is all about, for literally as soon as the match finished, they held a collection to help out the injured lad which was above and beyond what anyone would expect from them.

It was seven tries to six, with five goal kicks apiece, and was always an exciting contest between two evenly matched sides.

Ben Rogerson and Finn Barwise scored two tries apiece for Hensingham with the other touchdowns coming from Steven Smith, Ryan Corlett and Jake Bradley. Marc Bainbridge landed five goals.

Glasson replied with tries from Gary Taylor (2), Gary Tierney (2), Sean Mumberson and Jonathan Cameron. Mumberson converted three with Taylor improving two.

Walney stayed on Hensingham’s heels with a 24-6 home win over Wath Brow.

Jordan Stafferi (2), Tyler Smith, George Nicholls and Stuart Tippett scored the tries for the south Cumbrians with Nicholls kicking two goals.

The Wath Brow try was scored by Aiden Dawson and converted by Matt Sibbald.

The third scheduled Men’s League game between Ellenborough and Seaton was postponed.

The Iggesund Cumberland ARL programme centred on two Cumbria Shield matches.

In a tough tie, Broughton Red Rose finally progressed into the cross-county semi-final with a hard-fought 30-28 victory over Flimby Vikings.

With only three minutes on the clock, Broughton were camped on the Flimby line and straight from the play-the-ball Red Rose hooker Bleu Robinson seized an opportunity to burrow under the Flimby defenders to score under the sticks and give scrum-half Jonty Bell an easy conversion.

Bell increased the lead on 12 minutes with a penalty for a high tackle from straight in front of the sticks.

On 19 minutes, Dan Gilmour scored his first try of the season for the visitors, when he was on the end of a long pass and touched down unopposed. Darren Pape added the extras.

Five minutes later, Flimby took the lead for the first time when hard working prop Ryan Williams, burst on to a short ball and strolled over the line for an unconverted try.

Broughton regained the lead on 32 minutes through another converted try this time scored by Mike Walker, but just three minutes later, Flimby were back in front. Andrew Prest dived over the line straight to set-up another six-pointer which gave Flimby a slender 16-14 half time lead.

Six minutes into the second half the advantage was increased following a lovely break by Connor Wilson who fed a perfect pass to young winger James McCallister. He raced away to touch down in the corner and Pape landed a superb touchline conversion.

The pair combined just five minutes later to score an exact replica try and Flimby’s lead was increased to 28-14.

With a handy points cushion, Flimby then seemed to go to sleep as errors began to creep into their game which resulted in numerous silly penalties and dropped balls.

On 56 minutes, following another error by Flimby, Broughton’s man-of-the-match Shane Williams dropped on a loose ball behind the sticks to score and Bell kicked an easy conversion.

Less than 10 minutes later, Broughton crossed the line again after they somehow got the ball free from the tackle, and passed it to Williams who shot over the line for his second. The conversion was missed but the deficit was now cut to just four points.

With four minutes remaining, it was Williams again who was Broughton’s hero as he steam-rollered onto a short pass and ploughed over the line midway between the touchline and the sticks for his hat-trick try.

Bell took his time with the conversion and slotted the ball over, so Broughton regained the lead for the first time in the half.

During the last few minutes, Flimby had their chances to regain the lead but following another knock on, Broughton won the scrum and held on to progress to the semi-final where they will meet a team from the Barrow area.

It was almost as tight in the other Shield tie where Kells won 34-26 at Egremont, out-scoring their hosts by seven tries to five.

Martin O’Neil (2), Jake Parker (2), Ryan Doran, Harry Watson and Ryan Starkie scored the Kells tries with Doran landing three goals.

For Egremont, there were touchdowns from Lee Rogers, Antony Leak, Joe Bold, Pat Wells and Brad Long. Pat Bennett converted three.