St Benedict’s thrashed North Lancs Cumbria’s whipping boys Ashton-under-Lyne 105-0.

Although Aspatria stayed top after a 21-15 home victory over Salford-based De La Salle, it is now just a matter of time before Benny’s harvest sufficient points from their four games in hand to claim the league championship.

Aspatria are now neck and neck with third-placed Bolton to claim the play-off spot.

Their ambitions in this direction took a blow against De La Salle as they failed to earn a four-try bonus point. This might prove crucial in the chase for promotion.

The play-off, if it comes, will be against West Park St Helens, who are guaranteed the runners-up position in the South Lancashire and Cheshire league.

Aspatria raced into an early lead with a great individual try from full-back Ken Bowes which Jack Clegg converted.

De La Salle’s response demonstrated that they had not travelled north to make up the numbers. Aspatria’s defence was tested time and again by the direct running of the visitors back row and eventually they had the chance to reduce the arrears from a penalty, which Chris Petrou took.

Twice in the first half Aspatria declined penalties in front of the posts in favour of chasing tries. No one could fault this aspiration but it did not pay off as DLS matched Aspatria’s ambition with an equally resolute defence.

Home winger Grant Bethwaite did get over the line but he was held up and the half ended with the score line remaining at 7-3.

In the early exchanges of the second half DLS hit a golden patch and with only three minutes gone Aspatria surrendered the lead.

Following a penalty the visitors pack regained the ball and pressurised the Aspatria line.

Defenders were sucked in and a swift move to the right corner created space for back-rower Ryan Worthington to go in at the flag. Petrou’s conversion kick was good.

The comeback score came on 48 minutes.

The home forwards had done a great job in moving the ball to the try line but it took the smallest man on the pitch to finally take the ball at the base of a ruck and burrow his way through a mountain of bodies. Clegg kept hold of the ball and converted his try from the touchline.

On 53 minutes centre Kris Borthwick did the early damage with an arcing run before Bethwaite got his hands on the ball and raced down the left wing.

Bethwaite sucked in the defence and had Bowes on his shoulder to take his pass and race under the posts.

With the game moving into the last quarter, Aspatria seemed to be tiring and DLS looked energised, even more so when they scored on 67 minutes. Again it was forward power that did the initial damage and created the opportunity for Paul Berry to get over the line. Petrou converted.

Aspatria, desperate for the bonus point try, twice went close in the last few minutes through Hodgson and Clegg but couldn’t get the ball down properly.

Wigton ended their home schedule for the season with a comfortable 39-12 win over Fleetwood after taking an early led with a penalty from Gregg Smith.

Wigton’s opening try also came from Smith after good work by Richard Moffatt, David Hanabury and Arron Henderson. Smith converted.

Scrum-half Andy Brown made the next try with a chip over the top which was collected by centre Steven Harris to score.

Fleetwood used a familiar Wigton tactic from recent years, taking a tap to set up a driving maul.

Illegal play by Wigton failed to prevent the pack crashing over for a try and to make matters worse, hooker Richard Jackson was yellow carded.

Hanabury then produced a virtuoso gem of a try for Wigton, sidestepping and jinking round six or seven would-be tacklers who failed to work out where he had gone. Smith converted.

If a try like that had been scored on TV we would be seeing countless replays for months. Smith converted to make it 22-5.

There was time for one more first-half try to give Wigton a 29-5 lead at the break. Forwards Robert Marrs and Ralph Johnston made the initial inroads before Hanabury’s pass put Moffatt outside his marker to get behind the defence.

The ball went to Harris who dummied and stepped inside to score another excellent try. Smith converted.

The second half saw Fleetwood with a lot of possession but most of it was well in their own half and they struggled to provide a potent threat to the home defence until the final minutes of the match.

On the other hand, Wigton found the visitors themselves had tightened up defensively and strangely found it harder to penetrate than they had from much deeper positions in the first half.

Bradley Stapleton scored the sole Wigton try, converted by Smith who also kicked a penalty.

Whitehaven are as good as down after their 79-12 defeat to Oldham but Silloth are still fighting for their lives despite a 35-19 defeat at fellow strugglers Aldwinians.