Aspatria Rugby Club's promotion hopes remained intact thanks to a 45-34 win over Tarleton at Bower Park.

Billed as match of the day between first and second in the North Lancs/Cumbria League, Aspatria and Tarleton produced exactly that - a game of the highest quality.

Aspatria took the lead after five minutes when the home pack mauled the ball to the line where scrum-half Heinie Jonker took back possession and used his strength to wrestle the ball over the line. Craig Foster converted.

Tarleton hit back almost immediately with an intensive spell of attacking rugby.

Left-winger Luke Banks had a walk-in try and they took the lead on 23 minutes when number eight Frankie Skofic went under the posts. Ben Walton converted.

Coach Mike Scott had named himself on the bench and an injury to scrum-half Jonker obliged him to join a rejigged back-line far earlier than he intended.

Scott used his immense experience to bring Aspatria’s big ball carrying forwards into the game. There was no finesse being used as Matthew Atkinson, Greg Dickinson and Liam Ridley ploughed into their opposite numbers.

On 27 minutes, this tactic paid dividends as Atkinson charged over the line with defenders bouncing off him, left and right. The conversion was missed but Aspatria were on level terms.

Six minutes later, Tarleton regained the lead.

Skofic scorched through the Aspatria defence before unloading to Tom Eckerskey who drove over the line.

A Foster penalty narrowed the half-time gap to 17-15. Tarleton had the better of the first half and the two-point advantage was a long way from reflecting this. Aspatria now had the wind at their backs and a whole different ball game was about to emerge.

With less than three minutes gone of the second period, Scott’s sublime offload to on-rushing hooker James Ravell resulted in the lead being retaken.

Then, a 22 drop-out was held up in the wind and dropped straight into the arms of second row, Richard Miller. He burst through towards the try line and, although dragged down short left wing, Patrick Noutch was on hand to pick up and dart over the line for the try bonus point.

Tarleton responded immediately with hooker Jamie Bantleman goig over for their try bonus point.

The next 15 minutes would prove decisive for Aspatria as two Foster penalties stretched the lead to 11 points.

On 68 minutes, Atkinson scored his second try after a 40-metre dash to the line in which he skittled defenders out of the way.

Two minutes later, the result was put to bed. Tarleton, desperate to run the ball from deep, saw a forced pass fail and centre Josh Watson ran unopposed over the line. Foster converted.

The visitors summoned up the energy to entertain the crowd with two late tries. First over was Bantleman and, a minute later, he was followed by Skofic to end a fine day’s rugby.

Wigton were never in much danger of failing to record another home win against bottom club Littleborough as they were successful, winning 46-8.

It was not, however, a performance of the highest intensity with several try scoring chances not taken and the defence being a little generous at times.

Wigton’s first foray into Littleborough’s half drew a penalty which scrum-half Dan Reed kicked and he also had a hand in the first try.

No.8 Greg Wrathall drove the ball deep into the 22 and, at the base of the maul, an alert Reed spotted a shortage of defenders on the blind side and darted down, off-loading to prop Elliot Armstrong for the score.

When a maul was formed round Richard Moffatt, his fellow centre Ollie Lewis smuggled the ball out of the other side of the maul and stepped out of a tackle to celebrate his return to first-team action with a try. Reed converted.

However, from the kick-off, Wigton were caught napping. A long raking kick behind the defence was chased by winger Lloyd and he showed good pace to beat a couple of defenders to the ball and claim a try.

It was not long before Wigton conceded a penalty for a high tackle, enabling centre Whittles to narrow the gap to 15-8. This was not, however, the start of a Littleborough recovery and Wigton scored a seven-point penalty try before being unfortunate to have Lewis yellow-carded.

Despite this, Wigton soon scored again when Mark Deans bustled his way into the 22 and passed to Wrathall who showed a neat side-step to claim the unconverted try.

It was 27-8 at the break and Wigton soon added to that lead when David Hanabury drew defenders and then squeezed the ball out to hooker Stuart Creighton who scored.

Then Deans escaped the clutches of several defenders and passed to Lewis to finish off the move under the posts. Reed converted.

The last 15 minutes saw the game go off the boil somewhat but Moffatt got Wigton on the board again with a fine solo effort as he rampaged 40 yards through a tiring defence to score the final try.

Keswick moved back second in the table after recording a 41-7 home win over Hawcoat Park.

After surviving early Hawcoat pressure, Keswick were first on the scoreboard. A kick through by Matty Roper was hacked on by Andy Wallace who was first to the ball over the line.

The Hawcoat scrum was no match for Keswick’s but they were generally able to hook quickly and attack through their backs.

One clearance kick from the scrum was caught by full-back Wallace who ran forward, chipped ahead, hacked again and was first to the ball across the line once more, for a 10-0 lead after 27 minutes.

The restart kick was caught by Jamie McKenzie who showed great tenacity to break a series of tackles and score. Andy Muir converted.

Before half-time, Hawcoat enjoyed some good possession and were denied in the corner by good Keswick defence. However, the referee had been playing advantage and awarded a penalty try as well as yellow carding a Keswick player for a high tackle.

Ten minutes into the second half a pick up from the scrum by Stephen Moss was taken on by Roper and run out through Muir to David Ray who scored the bonus point try under the posts. Muir converted.

Opting for a scrum instead of a kick at a five-metre penalty, Keswick won clean possession and drove forward, allowing Roper to pick up from the back, evade a tackle and score an unconverted try in the corner.

Then captain Aaron Thompson picked up from the back, threw a dummy pass and ran 40 metres to score a converted try close to the posts on 69 minutes.

Late in the game scrum ball was passed to Ryan Weir who ran through to score and unconverted try.