WINDERMERE consolid-ated their position at the top of the Cumbria Division with a well-deserved victory at Keswick's Davidson's Park.

Final score Keswick 8- Windermere 27.

The fine weather and dry conditions enabled the sizeable crowd to enjoy an open and free-flowing game.

Keswick opened the scoring with a penalty by Hyslop awarded near the posts for an offside offence, but this lead was soon wiped out by a Windermere penalty from Chris Sansom.

The crucial phase of the match came midway through the first half when Adrian Gibson crossed for a brace of tries.

First a well-timed run by full-back Simon Cole was followed by good passing which enabled the winger to touch down in the corner and Sansom landed the conversion.

Shortly afterwards a powerful surge by Richard Rigg put Keswick under pressure down the blindside and more quick handling between forwards and backs gave Gibson his second try.

Shortly before half-time, more pressure from the Windermere pack resulted in Rigg powering over to give the visitors a 20-3 lead.

The second half did not all go Windermere's way.

Keswick made the most of limited possession to run the ball at every opportunity.

Their speedy threequarters gave Windermere some anxious moments and eventually an interception presented Dowson with a simple run-in.

The score came too late to affect the result as shortly before Simon Thomas scored under the posts with Sansom's conversion making sure of a Windermere victory.

All in all, this was a fair result to an excellent match played in good spirit by both teams.