Lowca are chasing a trophy double after they reached the final of the Iggesund Cumberland ARL top-four play-offs.

Already winners of the Taylors Joinery and Plastics Challenge Trophy, Lowca beat Aspatria 26-14 to earn a final tilt against Kella A on Friday, September 30.

Kells A had earned their place in the final with a 26-4 win at Egremont A, the team who had lost to Lowca in last week’s final.

Aspatria had the advantage of playing on their home turf for the semi-final with Lowca in front of a large sized crowd.

Lowca were pre-game favourites due to their commendable victory over Egremont coupled with the fact Aspatria were deprived of a handful of first team regulars, who were unavailable for a variety of reasons.

Consequently, the Hornets had to draft in the services of some (very) old faces to complete the 17 but the group was quietly confident of upsetting the odds.

The opening exchanges were very productive for the Hornets.

In their second foray into Lowca territory, veteran Craig Hamilton was tackled high and he took a quick tap from the ensuing penalty.

Some quick ruck speed meant Scott Donald gathered an off-load to score after only two minutes.

Luke Johnson made no mistake with the conversion.

Aspatria were playing with confidence and assertiveness and continued to apply early pressure and scored again on seven minutes.

Their stand-out performer for the year, Mark Irwin, crossed for his 28th try of the season. Johnson made no mistake with the kick from wide out.

From the resulting kick-off, Hamilton was forced from the field with a calf injury to leave Aspatria with one player less to choose from for the remaining 68 minutes.

The next 15 or so minutes saw a see-saw battle between the two sets of forwards.

Lowca were causing problems with their effective off-loading game but Aspatria were probing on the edges.

On 25 minutes, Lowca registered their opening points when the impressive Paul McNally scored, what was to be, the first try of his hat-trick and Callum Sirkett added the goal to half the deficit.

The game was certainly a physical affair with Lowca walking a fine line as a large proportion of their tackles looked high or borderline but referee Gordon Wallace preferred to let the game flow.

Lowca struck again on 28 minutes after a missed tackle in midfield allowed dangerous Lowca half-back Sirkett a 40 metre run to the try line. He missed with the resulting kick.

On 32 minutes, Aspatria were awarded a penalty within kickable distance and Johnson duly slotted the goal for a 14-10 half-time lead.

The second half was equally bruising with both sides giving their all to try and secure the win that would mean an appearance in the final.

There was little to separate the two team for long periods of the second period but, in the final analysis, Aspatria lacked a cutting edge and this was proven by the fact they were to remain scoreless in the second half, despite making several half chances.

Lowca drew level through John Tinnessen on 55 minutes and on 71 minutes McNally scored his second with Sirkett, converting to give the visitors the lead for the first time.

Lowca’s kick and chase on the last tackle was very effective and limited the space and time the Hornets’ outside backs had to return the ball.

On 79 minutes, McNally scored his hat-trick try and Sirkett added the goal to give Lowca a 12-point winning margin.

McNally took the man-of-the-match award for Lowca with Irwin picking-up the accolade for Aspatria.

Kells A did much of the spadework for their win at Egremont in the first-half as they led 18-4 at the break.

Ryan Doran had given them a 12-0 lead inside 11 minutes by scoring and converting two tries.

Jordan Harve scored a third try on 14 minutes, converted by Doran and Kells A were well on their way.

Egremont were given some late hope just before half-time when Lee Rpogers went in for an unconverted try.

That was to be Egremont’s only contribution to the score as they were unable to break hrough in the second-half.

Both tries from Kells A went unconverted with Harve grabbing his second and Doran completing his hat-trick.