Workington Comets boss Tony Jackson was elated to see the character of his side to battle to their first major final since 2010, and the semi-finals of the Knockout Cup in the same weekend.

Comets faced back-to-back meetings at Derwent Park and were dominant from start on Friday to finish on Saturday, seeing off Newcastle to book a cup semi-final against Edinburgh then getting the better of Scunthorpe to reach the Championship Shield final against either Peterborough or Lakeside, who will race next weekend in their semi-final.

The victories maintained Comets’ unbeaten home record and saw more stunning performances from the likes of Rasmus Jensen and Kyle Bickley, who are both coming into their best form at the right time ahead of a string of high-stakes fixtures.

Jackson said: “Newcastle was just one of those meetings you had to get out of the way so we could move the competition on.

“We were totally dominant and although you can only beat what’s in front of you, we comprehensively beat them.

“Edinburgh will be tough and the fact we went there and won 46-44 then lost 65-25 shows that it’s hard to know what to expect up there.

“We’ll need to get a guest for Dan Bewley up there.

“Scunthorpe had a few bits of bad luck on the night but so did we.

“For the second night in a row Kyle Bickley won heat two and you can see the improvement in him; he made a really determined ride to block off Gino Manzares for that win.

“I thought our guest Ben Barker was superb.

“He always guarantees effort at least and when he came from behind to join Rene Bach for a 5-1 early on that gave us the lead we needed and we never looked back.”