Kendal conquer in the Mint Bridge mud

After a relatively mild morning in South Lakeland, the weather poured its wrath on Mint Bridge to ensure that Kendal Hornets and Vale of Lune would not only have each other to contend with in this afternoon’s North 1 West match.

The Cumbrians never really looked in danger though on an entertaining afternoon in front of a small but enthusiastic crowd in the shadow of the Lake District Business Park.

The sponsors’ lounge was full and the beer and noise flowed in the clubhouse ahead of the 2pm kick-off, and once the game got underway Kendal, who began the day in fourth place in the table, immediately went about asserting their authority over the Lancastrians, just one place below them at the start of play.

Kendal drove a maul through almost the entire Vale of Lune half along the right touchline after only a couple of minutes, and a second row broke off before handing to the home fly-half. The conversion flew wide but the Hornets had an early lead.

A shower of hail rattled the roof of the small stand along the eastern touchline, while the players bravely battled on as their kit became ever more coloured by the mud.

Kendal extended their lead at the end of the first quarter, losing the ball forward after a maul was collapsed but managing to win the ball against the head, before the fly-half danced around two defenders to touch down just to the right of the posts. Again, the home side’s right winger failed to convert.

Vale finally mustered an attack in the following minutes, the away inside centre intercepting a pass on the left in his side’s half and racing downfield. Vale won a pair of penalties and decided to kick the second one through the posts to reduce the deficit to 10-3.

Vale’s full-back then chipped from a catch in his own half and chased, but the visitors were unable to get a controlled hack. They did win a penalty for offside, before coming right and winning another decision within kickable range, but this time the red and white kicker’s radar was wonky.

The Vale hooker was sin-binned just before half-time and both teams would have been relieved to get some sanctuary from the biting wind that was blowing rain from the hills down onto the pitch.

In the second half, the replacement Vale hooker was binned just minutes after the restart and Kendal almost completely dominated thereafter. One attack broke down for crossing after a maul went awry.

Kendal’s pack had the Lancastrian forwards on toast in the scrum, whoever was feeding. After a succession of scrums from both sides that the Hornets dominated, another yellow card was shown and from yet another drive the home team’s number eight was able to dot down.

The pitch was becoming quite a mud-bath now and it is to the scorer’s credit that he could actually see where the tryline was – it certainly wasn’t clear from the grass bank behind the south goal.

Kendal almost immediately got their bonus point but were again negligent in setting up a maul.

Vale finally managed a break after hacking a penalty upfield. The away fly-half skipped through a tackle on halfway after taking an inside pass from a winger and ran through unopposed, converting his own try to make the scoreboard a little more interesting at 15-10.

Nerves were fraying among the home fans, and Mint Bridge was becoming ever darker as the clouds thickened. The forwards were so muddy it was difficult to see who was playing for which side.

In the dying seconds, a final bit of excitement sent the majority of the crowd home happy, Kendal driving another scrum over on the left and touching down. The conversion made the result 22-10 to the home side.

The Hornets still sit a long way behind league leaders Wirral and Birkenhead Park in the promotion places but will be pleased to have got maximum points as they continue their quest for an immediate return to National 3 North, and look to take good form into their next game in a fortnight, the derby away to Kirkby Lonsdale.