Keswick continued their excellent start after promotion by winning for the second time in the North Lancs/Cumbria.

Still unbeaten after three games, they lead the Cumbrian challenge in second place. The latest success was a hard-fought 13-8 home win against Littleborough.

The visitors went into the game with an unbeaten record and provided stiff opposition for a Keswick side who have started so well.

The first 30 minutes were all Keswick with direct forward play and good running wide out.

Keswick scored first after a great burst from Ryan Weir was carried on with driving forward play for Mike Tait to touchdown.

More strong play followed for Andy Muir to touchdown and double the Keswick lead.

Half-time came at the right moment as Littleborough came back at Keswick strongly and scored a try to halve the deficit.

The rest of the game saw Littleborough dominate but Keswick defended superbly to keep them from scoring a try. The visitors did manage a penalty to move to within two points and to give the good-sized crowd a nail-biting finish.

There was a little less tension when Andy Muir kicked a penalty after one of the few sorties into the Littleborough half.

Aspatria mustered enough troops to overcome Trafford MV 37-32 in a real nail-biter.

Despite enforced squad changes, Aspatria ripped into the home side from the start and scored right away through makeshift winger James Ravell.

However, for the next 15 minutes, Aspatria never had the ball.

The home side were obviously at strength and it was hard to see this as the side that had lost the first two games convincingly.

They scored a well-taken try and a penalty to go in front and Aspatria could do little about it.

The next score came from a speculative kick over the top of the Aspatria defence when the ball took a wicked bounce, and wrong footed full-back Grant Bethwaite who lost the race to the bouncing ball.

They were quickly over again and, with just over 20 minutes played, Aspatria were reeling and down by 22-5.

Whatever was said under the sticks worked and the game turned on its head.

First over the line was player-coach Mike Scott who had come on from the bench. He threw a textbook dummy before cruising in under the posts.

Next over, was the impressive back-rower Jacques Rowe, who was followed over by captain Matthew Atkinson.

As the half-time whistle went, Aspatria had turned it round to be leading 24-22.

The second half was a bit more of an edgy affair but no less entertaining.

Trafford kicked a 40-metre penalty to go in front before Aspatria responded in the 53rd minute after a series of powerful forward drives and carries. Second-row Liam Ridley eventually crashed over.

The next 20 minutes was end-to-end with both sides trying desperately to get the vital score.

On 70 minutes, the home side made a break down the middle of the pitch, a two on one against the full-back was executed and a converted score under the posts was the outcome.

At 32-29, the home side had reason to feel that they had finally cracked the Black Reds.

But Aspatria drew level with a Scott penalty and, from a five-metre line-out, won the game. It was a home throw but the ball was stolen by Greg Dickinson who crashed over the line.

Wigton edged out visitors Oldham 22-15 to take four points from a scrappy, undistinguished game.

Neither side were able to build a great deal of fluency in a match punctuated by errors and penalties.

Wigton owed a lot to full-back Ryan Clark who had a 100 per cent kicking record landing five penalties and a conversion.

The first half contained little memorable rugby as attacks were often ended by knock ons, wayward passes and various other errors.

Wigton at least earned their penalties with some good phases of play.

Four penalties from Clark, as opposed to one by his opposite number Alec Jobson, gave Wigton a 12-3 lead at the break.

The visitors were the first to register a try when centre Josh Watson took advantage of some token defence to score.

Jobson’s conversion made it a tight game at 12-10.

While the game continued to be disjointed, Wigton drew a penalty as Oldham’s hooker Jamie Edwards was shown a yellow card for a high tackle. Clark was unerring from just over thirty yards.

Then, Richard Moffat produced some good approach work but it was his fellow centre, man-of-the-match Oliver Lewis who produced some nifty footwork to evade defenders and make a line break.

As he was tackled, he off-loaded to flanker John Story in support who scored. Clark’s conversion seemed to wrap up the points.

However, there was time for Oldham to have the last word with a second try for Watson which went unconverted.