KENDAL Rugby was hit by a difficult defeat in their recent match against Birkenhead Park.

Despite the weather being better than predicted, the game saw a hard start for Kendal when they conceded an early try.

A Park player evaded several tackles and made it to the line in the first minute.

Kendal quickly woke up and fought back but were let down by a number of handling errors which turned the ball over to Park.

Park extended their lead with a penalty, after nine minutes, when Kendal was caught coming into a maul from the wrong side in front of the posts to make it ten nil.

Twenty-seven minutes later their lead extended to 17 after a lineout.

More Kendal errors were preventing them getting points on the board. Twice penalties were put to touch in the twenty only for the throw not to be gathered.

Glen Weightman broke the Park defence, but with Ben Dixon and Chris Park to his left, he tried a more difficult pass to Lewis Kincart on a run to his right, and the pass went to ground.

A further Kendal mistake led to another Park score as the half came to an end.

From an attacking Kendal scrum, there was a mix up and a pass was not gathered. Park kicked the ball up field and an isolated Chris Park was swamped by Park players and conceded a penalty to make it 20-0.

It was not until the second half when Kendal reached their opponents line.

After some impressive waves of attack, Dan Shorrock went down the wing to score. Chris Park added the conversion from close to the touchline to make it 20-7.

Kendal had another chance from a lineout after a penalty, but yet again the ball was lost at lineout

Soon after Ben Leacock was brought on for Reece Tomlinson.

Kendal was soon hit again by another try from Park to put them on 25.

The Cumbrian side were also down to fourteen men for ten minutes as Dan Greenwood was yellow carded.

Park continued to concede penalties, but the Kendal lineout had now totally disintegrated and Park were winning the throw. There often appeared to be indecision, what to do when penalties were awarded.

During injury time, Kendal got its second try when Glen Weightman, took the penalty quickly then made ground before kicking ahead.

Lewis Kincart also chase the kick and he gathered the ball and from just inside the Park half, rounded their defence to score, with Chris Park adding the conversion.

The score rested on 25v14.

Next week Kendal will travel to Mint Bridge to face Wilmslow.