Penrith Rugby Club left kicking their heels, while

They should have been hosting West Hartlepool but Winters Park was deemed unplayable.

It was the only postponement in that division and, as a consequence, Penrith slipped to sixth.

But after leaders Driffield edged out contenders Alnwick, the Cumbrians are only 10 points off the top with two games in hand.

In North One West, life gets no easier for St Benedict’s who stay marooned at the bottom, cut adrift 21 points off safety.

Their latest setback came at Wilmslow where they were swamped 80-0.

St Benedict’s have only one win to their credit and that was back in September when they beat Wilmslow 20-19 at Mirehouse.

Despite winning only four of the next nine games to slip into mid-table obscurity, Wilmslow were far too good in gaining their revenge.

They scored 12 tries, the first after only two minutes play, and the rest followed at regular intervals.

Six tries were scored in the first half for a 40-0 lead and the rout continued in the second period with another six.

Whatever hopes St Benedicts had of repeating their trick of last September were dispelled within the first minute when they were shunted backwards on their own put in and lost the ball.

The Wolves used the possession to work their way downfield, set up an attacking line-out on the St Benedict’s line and to drive hooker Alex Donaldson over the line for the opening touchdown.

Thereafter, St Benedict’s looked resigned to their fate. When a club is having the kind of season that they are with beating after beating, it becomes difficult to retain its players’ motivation.

The fortnightly three or four-hour trek down the motorway to take on Cheshire and South Manchester sides loses its appeal.

For their part, Wilmslow dominated the full 80 minutes.

They were quicker to the ball, more aggressive at the breakdown, always crossing the gain line and in charge at the set-piece, frequently pushing their opponents off the ball.

This enabled them to put together some sound passages of play to create some good tries.

But really, if their passing and handling had been more accurate and they had played the conditions with a bit more patience, they could have had several more and probably would have done on a bright, dry day.

It was only a series of Wilmslow handling errors which enabled the visitors to make their one and only threatening sortie to within sight of the Wolves line rather than any incisive play by them.

This was quickly snuffed out when an attempted cross kick came to nothing.

Aspatria’s title ambitions in North Lancs/Cumbria took a blow with an 18-10 defeat at promotion rivals De La Salle.

Aspatria struggled with player availability prior to sending the team down the M6 for what, in any circumstances, is a difficult game.

For a second week, coach Mike Scott was forced to include himself on the bench and the starting stand-off berth was handed to his son, Ryan.

While the back division was simply disrupted, the forwards had to deal with wholesale changes.

The conditions were wet and muddy, and this led to a rash of handling errors by both sides in the early exchanges.

With 14 minutes on the clock, Aspatria achieved the first breakthrough.

Left-winger Patrick Noutch did well to chase a long clearing kick and bundle his opposite number into touch to give the visitors an attacking line-out and intensify the pressure on De La Salle.

The attack failed but Aspatria came away with a Craig Foster penalty to lead.

On 22 minutes, Foster had a second penalty attempt shave the post and the 22 restart would prove to be a turning point in the game.

Aspatria allowed the drop-out to fall into an unguarded area which allowed De La Salle to recover the ball and rampage up the field.

The move finished with the first try of the day and the momentum had clearly shifted.

The De La Salle pack dominated the remainder of the first half. Long periods were spent attacking in the Aspatria 22 but the defence was magnificent.

On the stroke of half-time, De La Salle increased the lead with a penalty but, at only 8-3 down, Aspatria had every right to be relieved.

Six minutes into the second half, another penalty increased the lead.

There was further disappointment on 52 minutes when one promising foray ended, not only in failure, but the loss of full-back Lee Tinnion.

It meant Scott senior joined son Ryan on the pitch. Within minutes, Aspatria’s coach was back on the bench, sidelined by a serious-looking arm injury.

Then prop Ashley Ravell was yellow carded for a rucking infringement and, four minutes later, he was followed by Fraser McNee for the same offence.

With 20 minutes still to play, Aspatria were down to 13 men and had no fit substitutes remaining.

Aspatria’s defence from this point was not much less than heroic.

After failing with two long-range penalty attempts, De La Salle scored a try on 66 minutes when Aspatria simply ran out of defenders.

The result was settled but Aspatria have to be applauded for how they finished the game.

Heads never went down and there was a steely determination to get some consolation which came with a try from skipper Matthew Atkinson, converted by Foster.

Wigton suffered a heavy defeat at lowly Hawcoat Park, losing the match 39-10 and conceding five tries in the process.

Another poor result on their travels was a major blow to their lingering promotion play-off hopes.

After two early tries from the hosts, Wigton recovered with a try by Kevin Robinson to reduce the arrears.

However, a yellow card for Jamie Warwick put Wigton on the back foot again and they conceded a third try.

Wigton came back with a try just before half-time by Ollie Lewis to reduce the deficit to 19-10.

Despite two yellow cards to Hawcoat Park in quick succession, Wigton were unable to trouble the scoreboard with Hawcoat Park scoring a further converted try and two penalties to increase their lead to 32-10.

The game had gone away from Wigton before Josh Leeson was shown a yellow card as the home team ended the game with a fifth try, which was converted.