Hawcoat Park just about maintained their 100 per cent record in Cumbria Division One last Saturday as they held off a strong comeback from Upper Eden to win 14-13.

As the scoreline suggests, this was a tight contest that went right to the final whistle and Upper Eden will have been reflecting how they didn’t run out the winning side as they passed up several opportunities.

The teams enjoy a long-standing good friendly relationship and this was a typically physical encounter between the two sides, with no quarter asked or given, but always played in the right spirit.

The Maroon and Whites could not have started any better, dominating all the early exchanges and five minutes in it was No.8 Mike Lightfoot who was on hand to force his way over from close range. Fly-half George Smith calmly slotted over the conversion.

With still only ten minutes gone, following a good run by stand-in scrum-half Lewis Sayle, Hawcoat had the put in at a five-metre scrum.

The hosts got a strong push on and to prevent the hosts’ getting over the line, Upper Eden both pulled down the scrum and were offside from the back row, making the award of a penalty try a clear-cut decision.

Midway through the first half, Upper Eden flicked the switch and the game became the expected arm wrestle with the young visiting side looking to run the ball at every opportunity from all areas of the pitch. They got off the mark when centre Dan Todd booted over a 30-metre penalty.

It was all Upper Eden for the rest of the half and the pressure eventually told five minutes before half time when scrum-half Matt Brass spotted a gap to touch down and reduce to gap to 14-8 at half-time.

The second half was certainly a continuation of an evenly-matched game and with Hawcoat playing with a slight wind advantage, Smith managed the game well with some good kicking to force the away side back into their own 22.

However, Upper Eden scored again when pacey full back Sam Edgar helped create the space for a try scored out wide. The difficult touch line conversion was missed, as was an easier penalty goal attempt soon after that could have given the visitors the lead.

In the final exchanges, Upper Eden threw everything at Park and had to work very hard to keep them out.

Centres Jack Sutherland and Chris Burns in particular finished the game strongly both in defence and taking the ball up hard when given the chance before the final whistle finally blew.