Hawcoat Park fell to their third defeat in a row in Cumbria Division One, as they were beaten 54-12 by a free-running Keswick side who have become the early pace-setters.

The picturesque and large Davidson Park pitch, with Skiddaw as the back drop, provides a great day for rugby, but playing in perfect condition is not a good time to take on the young, well-drilled and fast Keswick side.

Just as they had in both encounters last season, the hosts played some impressive, free-flowing rugby at pace that was just too good for the Maroon and Whites on the day.

In the first few minutes, after winning a scrum against the head, Keswick scrum-half Brian Storey broke blind and after some good support play, James Benson crossed over for a converted try.

To make matters worse, Hawcoat second row Mat Robson damaged his knee in attempting to prevent the try and took no further part in the game.

Park levelled the score after ten minutes, though, when good hands from scrum-half Jack Shannon and Scott Kaighan spread the ball out wide and back row Brad Morrow crossed for the try, which Kaighan converted.

Keswick then began to take control again and a break from their wingers looked to be a certain try but full back Benji Platt did very well to take a cover tackle right in the corner.

Our front row of Paul Woodburn, hooker Adam Grainger and stand in skipper Andy Kent were working well as was centre Jack Sutherland once again showing his versatility and taking the ball in hand and defending well.

However, the Keswick attacking play was proving difficult to stem and tries from Andy Muir, Olly Macpherson, Storey and Danny Price, all resulting from good team work, were scored before half time, taking the score to 33-7.

The second half followed a similar pattern, with Ash Mowat and Brady Slater outstanding and Rory Sayle working hard and showing up well in the line-out against good opposition.

All the Maroon and Whites were doing their best, but two further converted tries from Ryan Weir and Andy Wallace followed to increase the gap to 47 - 7.

But with 15 minutes to go, Hawcoat scored their second try and it deservedly went to Slater, following good approach work by Morrow and Lewis Sayle, who always looked dangerous with ball in hand.

Right at the end, Keswick took their score past 50 when their impressive full back, George Holme, came in to the line on the overlap to score. Storey kicked well all day, only missing the one conversion, and he nailed this one also to finish with a haul of 19 points.