Carlisle Rugby Club completed their North One West programme with a narrow 21-19 home defeat by Wilmslow.

Although Carlisle lost the first scrum of the day against the head, they quickly won a series of scrums within the Wilmslow 22.

The ball was eventually worked across to the right of the park where captain Tom Graham drove over from the back of a ruck for Carlisle’s first try which was converted by scrum-half James Telford.

It wasn’t long before the visitors evened up the score as their flanker drove through a gap in Carlisle’s defence and offloaded to his scrum-half who sprinted in under the posts.

Wilmslow had a busy spell as they took heart from their try and kept the home defence honest.

Carlisle were up to the task and defended well, slowly turning the squeeze on the visitors to push them back into their half and there were no further points before the break.

The second half started as the first ended as both sides tried and failed to exert any real dominance over each other.

Then, on 53 minutes, some magic from Max Connon saw him weave through a body of players to put fly-half Jason Israel in space.

Israel then released flanker Angus Fulton who made a barnstorming run up the left before feeding winger Chris Hubberstey to speed down the touchline and dive over in the left corner.

Although Wilmslow were unlucky not to score under the posts a few minutes later, it would be the Cumbrians who had the next points on the board.

From a scrum, Carlisle managed to disrupt the Wilmslow pack enough to win a put in to themselves.

From the set-piece, replacement No.8 Lee Brumpton peeled right off the back then deftly fed Telford who crashed through the visitors defence to go under the posts for a try converted by himself.

Leading 19-7 with 15 minutes to go, it looked like Carlisle would pull off the win but, as they have found to their cost previously this season, their forward advantage was nullified.

As Wilmslow ran out of props, the set-piece became a joke with uncontested scrums.

Within five minutes of this happening, Wilmslow attacked from deep and at pace to allow their scrum-half to scamper through and under the posts for their second try.

Telford pulled a penalty shot wide and, with Wilmslow regaining possession, the visitors then began to gain territory until they were deep into the Carlisle 22.

Although they were trying their hardest to get over the gainline, the home defence held firm but were rewarded with a series of uncontested scrums which provided no opportunities for Carlisle to regain possession.

Then, as the supporters were beginning to check their watches, the visitors eventually found a gap in the defence and crossed under the posts for their third converted try which won he math.

Tonight Carlisle will host Aspatria in the delayed semi-final of the Cumbria Cup (kick-off 7.30pm).

In North One East, Penrith were involved in a remarkable game at Cleckheaton to end the season.

It finished 70-59 to the home side with a total of ten tries in each half.

Unfortunately for Penrith, it was Cleckheaton who scored the last five for a famous win.

With 20 minutes left to play, Penrith appeared to have the game in the bag as they led 59-35 but, in an amazing turnaround, Cleckheaton scored five converted tries to win the game, and with 11 points to spare.