THE three week Christmas break obviously did Kendal's first XV good as they stormed to a fine 27-24 North One East win at Scarborough.

It was a battle between two off form sides, with the Yorkshiremen having lost their last four games before Christmas after an impressive start to the campaign and the visitors narrowly losing out in their three December games.

But Kendal could have won all three of those games and with Scarborough welcoming back several injured players, both sides were optimistic.

The good news for the visitors was the return of Matty Houghton from a spell at Wharfdale, while Chris Park came in at full back for Jack Blakeney-Edwards, who was away, and Dan Shorrock and Logan Flett also starting.

And Kendal got off to a flying start, taking the lead after just three minutes when Houghton made an immediate impact by breaking the Scarborough defence to set up a three to one overlap and passing to Lewis Kincart for the try which Glen Weightman converted.

It soon got even better when Steve Nelson broke on the left and passed to Kincart who set up Nick Carlton in support for the try.

But the home side struck back on the quarter of an hour mark, centre Henry Hocking going through a gap to score a try he converted himself.

Scarborough were starting to get the upper hand and drew level five minutes later, driving over after a lineout.

Kendal hit back immediately, Carlton charging down Parker’s attempted clearance kick and touching down, only for Hocking to cross from close range to level things up once more.

Still the first half scoring was not over as Weightman's penalty saw the visitors once again regain the lead.

Scarborough had the better of the early exchanges in the second half and regained the lead when full back Tom Harrison went over, Hocking converting to make it 24-20 to the home side.

Jack Lashley was yellow carded and it was all hands to the pump as Scarborough attempted to seal the win.

But Kendal survived and in injury time, Glen Weightman weaved through to score what proved to be the winner.

There were still several minutes of added time left, but Kendal weathered the storm to hold on for a famous win.

The value of the late try which took Kendal from a losing bonus point to full points, became clear with news that next weekend’s opponents Driffield had been held to a draw at home by Durham City which sees them move out of the bottom three, at the expense of Percy Park.