St Benedict's became the first team to beat Cumbria League leaders Keswick with a narrow 21-20 win at Lowca.

Yet Keswick had started brightly, eventually scoring a try by Louis Cornforth after their hosts had conceded four penalties in the first four minutes.

On 10 minutes, however, Benny’s got themselves in front after Keswick were dispossessed trying to run the ball from a scrum deep in their half. Dan Rayson went over for the try and converted it.

When Keswick caught a clearance kick and ran it back, they were awarded two penalties and it got them close to the home line. Opting for a scrum, Keswick mauled the ball across the line but the referee judged the ball to have been held up.

From that scrum, the ball was passed out to Ryan Weir who ran in from 15 metres to score an unconverted try on 34 minutes.

Before the break, however, Benny’s were back in front after Keswick failed to find touch.

The home side ran the ball back, creating an overlap to score a converted try on the right from Ryan Fisher, converted by Rayson, to give them a 14-10 advantage.

With the wind and slight slope in their favour, Keswick were first on the scoreboard after the resumption through a Chris Highton penalty.

They went on to regain the lead on 57 minutes when a home attack was stopped on the halfway line where they were dispossessed. Quick passing to Weir allowed him to run in and score under the posts for Highton to convert.

It was then Keswick’s turn to give away successive penalties, allowing the opposition back into the away half for a rare foray. From one of them, the hosts were able to create an overlap and cross for a try by Russell Burns and Rayson converted off the touchline for the crucial one-point advantage on 70 minutes.

Despite spending the last few minutes camped on the St Benedict’s line, Keswick were unable to make the final couple of metres.

After suffering a defeat at Hawcoat Park, Cockermouth returned to winning ways with an 18-11 home success against Whitehaven.

The Wasps owed much to a very strong defensive effort, although their attack is still not firing on all cylinders. They gave Whitehaven enough possession to make it a very tight game over the 80 minutes.

Whitehaven were first on the score-sheet inside five minutes when Ed Gate threw a speculative pass which was intercepted and finished by the Whitehaven winger Harrison Riley.

The home side responded straight away and found excellent field position for Gate to launch a backs move which was finished off by McGuire. Gate’s conversion gave Cockermouth the lead.

During the first half, both defences remained strong and the only additions to the score were a penalty apiece from Gate and Steve McConnell. The Wasps created enough chances to get to a bonus point in the second half but there was some excellent cover defence from Whitehaven.

Whitehaven’s back-row moved quickly to the turn over and some frustrating mistakes by the Wasps meant they only added one try through Mark Watson and a Gate penalty.

The visitors did create a couple of chances through kicks over the top but they were well defended and all they could add was a second McConnell penalty.

Aspatria took a full five points in a 38-14 home victory over Hawcoat Park to stay second in the league.

Throughout the contest, Aspatria looked to have the edge on their opponents but it took them a full 70 minutes to put the end result beyond doubt as Hawcoat Park provided a lesson in dogged resistance.

Jack Clegg gave Aspatria the lead from an early penalty and, soon afterwards, Grant Bethwaite made a penetrating run before finding Andrew Miller coming in at pace to take his pass and go over.

Park knuckled down and took on the best Aspatria could throw at them and the final 10 minutes of the half belonged to the visitors.

With the last play of the half, they got a deserved reward when back-rower Bradley Morrow got over and George Smith converted for a 10-7 interval deficit.

Aspatria restored the 10-point gap on 49 minutes when Miller went in for his second and, eight minutes later, Craig Foster burst through to score the third try.

From the restart, an unforced error handed possession back to Park and eventually, mindful of Aspatria’s first half penalty count, the referee warned the Black Reds and then awarded Park a penalty try with home winger Patrick Noutch yellow-carded.

Aspatria continued their wasteful ways but with ten minutes remaining conjured up a score of real class with Bethwaite’s brilliant break setting-up Miller’s hat-trick try.

The final try was scored by prop Graham Andrews, converted by Clegg to complete his 100 per cent kicking record.

Wigton got their show back on the road with an emphatic 45-14 home win over Upper Eden.

The game featured a lot of expansive, ambitious rugby, especially in the second half, interspersed with a lot of powerful running.

Wigton led 19-7 at the break through tries by Oliver Lewis, veteran David Warwick and John Wright, two converted by Dan Reed.

Upper Eden had actually scored first with a try from Daniel Todd which he also converted.

Wigton produced some of their best stuff in the second half when there were tries for Warwick, Fergus Ledingham (2) and skipper Greg Wrathall. Reed converted three.

Chris Kerr scored the second Upper Eden try, converted by Todd.