Both Cockermouth and West were duly promoted to Regional 2 North and, it has to be said, have not set the league on fire. Cockermouth have yet to win a game and are bottom of the table with five points  to their name,  while West's ability to score tries and lose narrowly has earned them  two wins with 18 points achieved and are in 9th place.

Upper Eden occupy the other relegation place, and are due to visit Brinkburn next were with the final league game of 2023 at Morpeth the following week. The Northumbrians are also having a modest season, by their own standards, and are just five points clear of  West in 8th place.

So all three scheduled games in December are veritable "ten pointers" and follow a run of games against sides up at the top of the league. A couple of wins would also make up for those games where pressure in the closing minutes just failed to produce a win - notably at home to Morpeth (lost 23-27), Stockton (lost 22-27), Middlesbrough (drew 29-29) and away at Aspatria (lost 27-24).

Having played all but one of the other sides there's certainly nothing in this league for West to fear, specially after scoring four tries at leaders Percy Park, and the hope will be that the wins will start to come in the second half.

The Stags' results have picked up in recent weeks thanks to a number of more expierenced players putting their pints down and getting back on the pitch,  even just for a 20 minute spell.

Second row Ben Lloyd seems to have been inspired by his charity trek to Everest base camp to maintain his fitness - he has been man of the match in recent games. Anth Carr, Greg Edwards, Paul Moss and now Adam Coates have all also  been inspired to give it a go again alongside lads half their age.

They're due to go to the Headland to take on a BBOB side which includes Chocky Davies in their own mix of experience and youth. BBOB's decision to swap the RFU league structure for the more relaxed CaNDY league looks to be paying off for them.

SQUADS

First team at Cockermouth (2.00 pm): Ryan Painter (captain), Jack Angus, Aidan Jackson-Smith, Adam Hutchinson, Connor McLurg, Will Corbett, Ollie Webster, Charlie Kay, Chris Atkins. Isaac Robinson, Jay Corbett, Ollie Connolly, Matty Baggs, Matt Siddle, Lewis Scott, Max Tennant, Sam Knight,.

Stags at BBOB (2.00pm): Martin Todd (captain), Tim Blades, Matty Ward, Adam Coates, Jay Anderson, Josh Wilson, Cam Mould, Luke Bage, Dan Robson, Jay Adamson, Jacob Parker, Zac Southern, Aaron Pike, Kyle Jamieson, Jordan Painter, Jacob Wood, Kai Pierce, Greg Edwards, Richard Cooper-Lewis, Harry Siddle.