Aspatria into second spot after 10-try romp against Burnley

The Black Reds moved to second in the league which continues to be headed by De La Salle.

Below these two are four other clubs, still harbouring realistic title hopes and this group include Cumbrian sides Wigton and Keswick.

Burnley, despite coming to Bower Park as the competitions basement club, played a full part in an open game that entertained a large crowd of ex-players and supporters gathered for the Black Reds annual reunion.

With less than a minute gone, full-back Lee Tinnion made two searing breaks ripping apart the Burnley defence.

Neither produced a score but Tinnion’s third effort did not fail and he rounded a narrow defence to go in at the corner.

Try-scoring chances were coming thick and fast for the home side. With more composure Aspatria could have been out of sight within the first ten minutes.

Then Noutch found himself the beneficiary of a simple backs move that put him in space down the left flank where he rounded the last defender to go under the posts. Ryan Scott converted.

Burnley shook off the early setback and ball retention by their forwards was excellent.

When they finally entered the Aspatria 22 this precision play created sufficient pressure to earn a well worked try for number eight Ben Healy.

On 20 minutes, the home crowd had a moment to savour when 18-year-old hooker, Adam Cavanagh came into possession around 30-metres from the try line. Cavanagh hit the defensive wall at pace and skittled three defenders on his charge to the line.

In response, Burnley repeated their early good retention work and on 26 minutes engineered a carbon copy of their first score.

Pressure was built and patience rewarded when Healy got himself over the line again.

The comeback score had an immediate impact on Aspatria and they buckled down to secure the end result.

The bonus-point try came on 30 minutes after Aspatria were awarded a penalty at a five-metre scrum.

Team captain Matthew Atkinson had only one thought and that was to get hold of the ball, take a quick tap and storm over the line.

Aspatria increased their lead with the very next attack two minutes later.

Deep in the Aspatria half Atkinson fielded a towering, clearance kick and launched himself on a charge downfield.

The giant second-rower might well have ended his 50-metre run with a second try.

But, with defenders closing in, he took the sensible option to pop a pass to right-wing Ben Robinson who had the gas to sail through under the posts for a debut try and a half-time lead of 31-10.

Six minutes after the restart, second-rower Liam Ridley helped himself to Aspatria’s sixth try.

Ridley is one of the unsung work horses of the Aspatria pack but on this occasion the ball found him in unfamiliar territory on the right wing where he had an unopposed gallop to the line.

The seventh try followed on 51 minutes when Robinson scored his second.

The first score showed that the youngster had pace but this one demonstrated that he possesses a wicked side step that left two defenders looking like stone statues as the winger rounded them to go over.

On 55 minutes, left-winger Jack Robinson went over in the corner after coming off the subs bench.

With the game into the last quarter, another replacement Andrew Miller was able to take full advantage of a tiring defence with two superbly timed runs.

For the first, on 70 minutes, he had Cavanagh to thank for a bullocking charge that had the visitors back peddling. When Miller cut the line he was unstoppable.

His second and Aspatria’s 10th was almost a repeat of the first with Miller seemingly hanging out from the back line and then taking the pass at a pace waiting defenders could not handle to close the game.