JWright

Published at 00:00, Friday, 10 March 2006

WORKINGTON will come up against some of their former stars in the quarter finals of the Story Cumbria Cup.

The Zebras have been paired at home to Kendal who have a clutch of ex-Workington players in their ranks.

Martin Armstrong, Adrian Bateson, Ross Dougherty and Daniel Bowman all made the trek from the Ellis Sports Ground to Mint Bridge, while another centre Ryan Dobie went via Aspatria.

The tie must be played on or before April 2.

North Lancs Cumbria League, high-flying Carlisle, have a bye in round three and face a trip to Aspatria in the quarter finals.

Wigton must wait for the winners of the second round game between Windermere and Silloth before knowing who they play while there’s a good West Cumbrian derby in prospect between Cockermouth and Netherhall.

The third round matches have to be completed before March 19.

Holders Penrith come into the competition at the quarter final stage and they will visit the winners of the Wigton and Windermere or Silloth contest.

St Benedict’s, beaten finalists last year, travel to the winners of Cockermouth v Netherhall.

Workington were due to play at home to Oldham on Saturday but a number of the Oldham players were snowed-in and couldn’t make the trip.

Tomorrow the Zebras go to Heaton Moor, who crashed 74-8 at Carlisle on Saturday in the only North Lancs Cumbria League game played.

Heaton Moor are third bottom and in danger of going down alongside Netherhall and Workington.

Netherhall visit Wigton tomorrow while in North Two West Aspatria have a home game against Fleetwood.

Aspatria Eagles were involved in one of only two games played in the Cumbria League on Saturday, just going under 24-20 at Creighton as the Carlisle club christened their new ground on the old Garlands Hospital site.

Creighton played with a strong wind in the first half but went behind after five minutes to an unconverted try by Keith Shaw.

The home side equalised five minutes later with a try in the corner by Dave Hopkins.

After 20 minutes winger Tom Reed continued his good run of scoring with a try well converted by Johnny Morshead. Then with just two minutes left Creighton struck twice to score further tries.

First it was full back Dan Dudley who scored a great individual effort, converted by Morshead. Then straight from the kick off Danny Smithson scored to make it 24-5 at half time.

The second half was a different story as a strong Aspatria chipped away at the lead with two tries from Michael Waite and Ian Rumney.

Steve Davidson converted one of them and also landed a penalty.

It was getting a bit too close for comfort at the end for Creighton but they held on to collect the points.

The other league games were all called off because of frozen pitches apart from at Millom where the home side were ready to play but opponents Gosforth Greengarth were unable to field a team.

Tomorrow Aspatria Eagles host title-chasing Kirkby Lonsdale while Cockermouth entertain league leaders Whitehaven, who played in the only other game last weekend - hammering Windermere 84-7.

Keswick travel to Gosforth Greengarth while Silloth have a home game against Millom.

On Sunday Keswick School’s Robert Miller pushed his claims for a full international place with a solid display for the England U18 squad.

The squad enjoyed a successful workout against their Welsh counterparts at Aberavon’s ground in Port Talbot.

The England selectors looked at two development sides with the Gold team beating a Wales Development XV 29-5 and the Blue team going down 23-5 to the Wales U18 first team.

Miller was in Gold which turned around 5-3 down after they had to play into a very strong wind in the first half.

But the Welsh lead was soon made to appear inadequate as Gold scored four tries, three of which Miller converted. He had also kicked a first-half penalty.

England will again field two squads to play their Scottish counterparts on the back pitches at Murrayfield on March 19.

* Keswick’s U18 side enjoyed a 102-0 win over Penrith. Keswick’s score include six tries for Alex Leonard and five for Duncan Lawrence while Glen Weightman kicked nine conversion.

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