It wasn’t to be in the end. Cumbria had to settle for runners-up spot to Lancashire in the BARLA County Championship Tri-Series.

In both Open Age and Under-19s, Lancashire proved top dogs, although in the senior competition it all boiled down to points differential.

If Lancashire had beaten Yorkshire by two points, then all three sides would have tied both on match points and points difference.

At half-time, the final game at Leigh Miners was suitably poised – Lancashire leading the Tykes 18-16 at half-time.

But they pulled clear in the second half to win 40-22 and ensure they took the title.

Cumbria could take some consolation in the fact that they had beaten Lancashire 16-14 at Millom the week previous.

Unfortunately, Cumbria had been edged out 14-12 in their opening game in Yorkshire.

Cumbria took runners-up spot in the Under-19s after Lancashire beat Yorkshire 44-20 to record their second win in the competition.

They had travelled to Millom and gone away with a 32-22 victory after Cumbria had beaten Yorkshire 20-18 in the opening game of the competition.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of Cumbrian interest in the current tour of Fiji by the BARLA Lions.

They edged home 22-20 in their opening game against Fiji West when five Cumbrians were in the starting line-up with another four on the bench.

Lee Postlethwaite (Millom), Kevin Hoban (Ellenborough), Jack Clark (Cockermouth), Mark Tyson (Askam) and Sam Jones (Barrow Island) were in the 13 who started the game at Prince Charles Park, Nadi. Matt Henson (Egremont), Tom Hopkins (Askam), Marcus O’Brien (Egremont) and Johnny Goulding (Cockermouth) started from the bench.

The second game of the tour against Fiji Bati Residents was cancelled because of the extreme heat.

Lions PRO Dave Parkinson said: “There were issues with the high heat and humidity which could impact on player welfare.”