Spare a thought for Aspatria who don’t know whether their season is over or not.

Due to the apparent deadlock over next season’s league make up and lack of decisive action by the RFU, Aspatria have been left in limbo.

They don’t know whether they are being promoted; have to play a decider at Bowdon or will be staying in an enlarged Cumbria League.

No wonder officials at the Bower Park club are losing patience and the players losing interest.

The problem is clubs in Lancashire and Cheshire don’t want to travel to Cumbria - even if it’s just once a season.

They seem to be gathering support from Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham so that Cumbrian clubs are being left out in the cold.

Under the old system, Aspatria would have gone to Bowdon to play a promotion decider but that has still to be confirmed.

Aspatria’s Barney Clegg said: “It’s a desperate state of affairs to be left in this sort of position when we can’t plan anything for next season because we don’t know where we will be playing.

“I reckon in about six weeks we would be normally receiving our fixtures and would then plan our sponsorship arrangements. We just don’t know what’s going to happen.

“We desperately want to get back to travelling rugby again because I think a season in the Cumbria League showed up the shortcomings.

“We played Cockermouth, for instance, seven times and that’s no good for anyone.”

Aspatria beat Cockermouth 21-17 on Saturday to lift the Cumbria League Cup after finishing runners-up to Keswick in the Cumbria League.

Keswick, at least, know that they will be moving up again to North One West and can look forward to local derby games with Penrith and Kendal.

Those two met in the final of the Cumbria Cup on Saturday with Penrith edging a tense contest 21-20.

It was an uplifting end to a largely disappointing season for Penrith who didn’t make themselves safe from relegation until the very last game.

For Kendal, the defeat just continued the agony as they were relegated from North Premier the previous week, and at least the County Cup offered some consolation. But Penrith triumphed and will look forward to an improved position in the league next season, when they will be playing Kendal again.

Penrith stalwart Mike Sanderson said: “It’s been a tough old season for injuries and during the course of the campaign we used 44 different players.

“The problem was, it affected some of our big hitters. Liam Tunstall is an influential forward and he is still waiting for a knee operation, while winger Jamie McNaughton missed half the season with a shoulder problem, yet still finished as our top try-scorer.

“Centre Matt Allinson missed games with a knee injury and scrum-half George Graham was also absent on a few occasions,” he said.

Allied to the injuries was a depressing run of away results, which included a defeat at the bottom side De La Salle.

“We only won once away during the whole season, which was a bit of a continuation from the previous year.

“But we were able to score tries, win or lose, and in the end it was the accumulation of bonus points which actually helped us stay up,” said Sanderson.

“After surviving on the last day it was very nice to complete the season on a high by winning the Cumbria Cup,” he concluded.