Zebras made to sweat, but ultimately clinch sweet smell of victory.

Workington continue to pace the Cumbria League pack with a hard fought, but thoroughly deserved 9th win in a row as they overcame an extremely dogged Cockermouth 26 - 10 at The Ellis.

Straight from kick off, the visitors made a mockery of their mid table status as they were all over their hosts and were always likely to score first - which came after 10 minutes as Harry Harrington unlocked Zebras' defence to cruise under the posts. Matt Henson easily adding the conversion.

Workington slowly found their stride and after exerting pressure of their own and this reaped the ultimate reward on 22 minutes when the ever alert Tom Lawson pounced on a stray ball from the scrum and then bolted away to go over for a superb try, which was then effortlessly converted by Scott Rooke.

A Henson penalty 3 minutes later restored Cockermouth's lead, but this lasted barely 2 minutes as Zebras again stepped up a gear and assumed the lead another loose ball was clinically scooped up by Bede O'Connor, who left his rivals trailing as he stormed over the whitewash for an unconverted try.

Cockermouth were not shaken however, and briefly resumed control of the match - but any scoring chances were thwarted by a stonewall Zebras rearguard that was in no mood whatsoever to concede again.

Then, on the stroke of half time, Workington delivered a hammer blow when a winning line out led to Bob Hodgson cleverly sneaking in unmarked to breeze in under the posts, leaving Rooke with a routine conversion.

It was deja vu in the second half as Cockermouth - like they began the first half - set up camp in their opponents' 22, displaying sublime passing and speedy footwork. However, just as in the first half, the visitors were guilty of clumsy handling errors and the aforementioned

Workington defensive shield remained impeccably steadfast.
If Zebras wanted to maintain their winning streak, then they were going to have to earn it and then some. After weathering the storm, they began to slowly regain the whip hand, with Lawson and especially man of the match Hodgson posing constant danger to the opposition.

Twelve minutes from time, victory was clinched as well as another bonus point when Ross Cape fed the ball to Andrew Bowe, who scored his 8th try of the season with the now legendary "crashdown" try - his 8th of the season. Rooke wasted no time in making it a hat trick of conversions.

Other teams would have caved in - but not Cockermouth and it's a credit to them that their heads didn't drop as they went in search of at least a bonus point to take back home. The quest became fruitless as Workington held steady to close out the game.

Zebras are now 6 points clear at the top of the Cumbria League and will be hoping to make it a perfect 10 next Saturday at The Ellis when they welcome Egremont in a game that also doubles up as the Cumbria Plate Quarter Final.

By John Hastings @ The ESG