The team returned to the ground where they won the Cup in May, and were again made to work hard against a well organised lower ranked team. The weather was very different from that previous game with a sunny afternoon ideal from rugby. The team was also much changed with only three starting in the same position that they did in May, with five who have joined over the Summer in the starting line-up.

Both teams had their opportunities early on, with Keswick keeping ball well, whilst Kendal tried to move the ball quickly, which did not always come off, but most of the play was in the Keswick half.

Kendal had an opportunity to take the lead, after being awarded a penalty when a Keswick player came offside, when Glen Weightman had broken through, but after a delay for a conference, and a final decision to go for the points, the fairly simple kick missed the target.

The team did take the lead after ten minutes. A good run down the left by wing Myles Harrop, saw him stopped near the line. When the ball came back, second row Liam Ridley burst through, and then when the ball came back, Nick Carlton got to the line, and whilst stopped managed to reach out to ground the ball for opening the try. 0v5.

The lead did not last long. Keswick seemed to have made a mess of a move, with the ball going loose in the backs, but the referee has spotted a Kendal player offside. The penalty was put to touch and the Keswick forwards drove from the lineout, and once stopped a player broke away to score 5v5

The Kendal scrum had been in early difficulties, but started to get parity and were award a penalty when the Keswick front row stood up to prevent a drive. Chris Park made no mistake 5v8

The final score of the half came from a Carlisle attack, Garry Holmes was quickly in to try to steal Keswick ball, and the Keswick player was penalised when they failed to release. The penalty was run and Zane Butler who was playing in the centre, made ground down the left, and when he was stopped got the ball away to Myles Harrop. He still had a number of Keswick players in front of him, but somehow managed to get through their tackles, before sprinting to the line. 5v13 at half time.

Keswick came out for the second half fired up, and Kendal hardly touched the ball for the first ten minutes of the half.

Keswick narrowed the lead after just two minutes, when the referee adjudged a Kendal player had entered a ruck from the side, 8v13

Kendal followed this with a mass substitution with Liam Hayton, Ben Dixon and Robbie Collinson coming on for Liam Ridley, Jack Lashley and Alistair Thompson.

This made no difference as Keswick took the lead. From a scrum, the ball was moved into midfield and a player went over from short range, with the conversion added 15v13.

Kendal came back into the game but a string of handling errors prevented them getting any momentum, whilst Keswick continued with their simple tight game.

An injury to John Dervey saw Liam Ridley return after twenty minutes of play.

Kendal finally regained the lead after twenty five minutes. Good build up work by Nick Carlton and Myles Harrop on the left, saw a gap open up for Glen Weightman to go through to score, with Chris Park adding the simple conversion. 15v20.

Jack Lashley with a bandaged head, returned for Garry Holmes after half an hour.

One of the areas where Kendal had struggled earlier was at the back of the scrum. The introduction of Ben Dixon at No.8 and a tiring Keswick pack, saw much better play, and with five minutes of normal time to go, Kendal opened up a two score lead, when Dixon picked up from a scrum near the right hand touchline, and rather than use Mark Carruthers outside him, powered over himself for the score. 15v25.

Three minutes later the game was made safe with a further try. A weakness in the Keswick game throughout had been some poor kicking, and Nick Carlton charged down a kick, and then re-gathered to score in the corner, and Chris Park put over the difficult conversion 15v32.

There were late introductions for Shaun Tipping and Jordan Johnson. Whilst Garry Holmes returned for Jack Lashley who was forced off with a head injury.

Keswick finished strongly, but were unable to add a consolation try.

Keswick worked hard to keep in touch with Kendal, but the team will need to cut out the frequent errors if they are to stand a chance of victory in the first league game at Ilkley next week.

Nick Carlton and Myles Harrop both played well in attack and defence, and Zane Butler and Glen Weightman worked hard throughout the game. Up front it was a much improved lineout performance and as the game went on far more pressure was put on the opposition at rucks, leading to the team winning several penalties.

Your KENDAL MAN OF THE MATCH : Myles Harrop
After looking promising when he came on for Dini in the warm up game against Blackburn, Myles backed it up at Keswick, including doing very well to get his try, and pulling off a few key tackles.

Myles picked up half the total vote, with the rest spread between six others