KIRKBY Lonsdales played away against Alnwick which resulted in a tough game and a 300-mile round trip.

While the journey was not ideal, fortunately next season promises to see a totally reorganised league structure based on geographical locations which should see a dramatic reduction in travelling distances but also offers the prospect of local Derby games between the likes of "old friendly foes”, including Kendal, Vale of Lune, Penrith, and Carlisle.

Kirkby’s preparation for next season has not been without a number of setbacks including an unsettled squad due to early retirements, injuries to key players and an age differential forcing younger players into a baptism of fire being asked step up to the first 15, but to a man or a boy they have relished the challenge and done the club proud.

The game presented a series of difficult challenges for Kirkby which put them 40 nil down after the first 40 minutes.

Kirkby spent the majority of the match fighting to escape their own half.

They fought on bravely but were no match for the power and pace of a rampant well drilled Alnwick side who used their weight and height advantage to dominate the scrums and disrupt the line outs to provide their speedy backs with a regular stream of running ball options to stretch Kirkby’s defence to breaking point and so the Alnwick scoreboard ticked over with alarming regularity.

Injury time produce a special moment of sweet relief for the reeling Kirkby side.

James Coulter came on as an injury replacement, and this classy Sedbergh School based Centre produced a moment of individual magic evading several tackles then powering over the line with two Alnwick players still attached to score under the post far too late in the game to make any difference but his presence seem to lift his team’s mood as the referee signalled for half time with the score now standing at 40-7 to the home side.

Being so far and comfortably ahead, Alnwick gave some of their own young players a run out but their depth of young talent is such that Kirkby still had to deal with unrelenting attacking pressure but did manage to make some progress of their own making the odd incursion into Alnwick territory.

Then came another cameo which shows the potential of this developing Kirkby squad when after several slick phases Will Brown collected the ball and showed his emerging presence and authority by brushing off several Alnwick tacklers then powering over for a fully deserved try, a simple conversion gave Kirkby a final tally of 14 points, something to treasure on the long ride home.

The final score was Kirkby Lonsdale on 14 against Alnwick’s 73.