In-form St Benedicts were too strong for a weakened Hawcoat Park, who fell to a heavy 64-12 defeat in Cumbria Division One last Saturday.

The fixture computer had thrown up a real pre-Christmas toughie for the Maroon and Whites with a trip up the coast to Whitehaven to take on the high-flying Bennies.

With injuries and non-availability, it was through the considerable efforts of Jason Meadows that a patched-up team made the journey north through the December gloom.

With former county player Steve Wood controlling their play from fly-half and the hosts possessing by far the best set of threequarters in the league, with pace and power everywhere, Hawcoat were up against it right from the start.

Having to play against a very strong wind blowing down the ground, their kick-off did not make ten metres and from the first scrum, Bennies set the tone by moving the ball out wide for their winger to score the first of his four tries.

Using the wind exceptionally well and pinning the visitors deep in their own half with long racking kicks to the corners, the hosts surged into a 28-0 lead after just ten minutes, thanks to four converted tries.

With captain for the day Andy Kent and young Jack Ostin leading the tackling efforts, Park did manage to stem the flow a little but two further tries followed and at the half-hour mark the score was 40- 0.

Hawcoat finally managed a spell of pressure of their own, with fly-half Chris Burns leading by example by spotting some space on the blindside to force his way over.

There was still time for Bennies to score another well crafted try before half-time, however, to take the score to 47-5 at the break.

Unfortunately for the Maroon and Whites, the strong wind dropped slightly but the second half followed a similar pattern with Bennies well on top and tries still came at regular intervals despite the away team’s efforts.

They did deservedly score the last try of the game when good work by Joe Rea and Andy Graham supported by Will Coles and Callum Ramsay set up a position for Burns to force his way over for his second try, which was converted by Scott Dobbie.

Despite the harsh scoreline, the Hawcoat lads deserve credit for showing good commitment in difficult circumstances in a game played properly and in a good spirit.

Park have one more fixture before the Christmas break and it’s another tough one, with second-placed Wigton making the journey down to Barrow this weekend.