KENDAL full back Mike Scott marked his return for Kendal after a hamstring injury with a penalty in either half to give his side a slender, but well-deserved victory over neighbours Wharfedale.

Final score: Kendal 6, Wharfedale 0.

In a tenacious display watched by a 1,000-plus crowd at Mint Bridge, Kendal bottled up their visitors with a magnificent exhibition of tackling.

And when the lively Wharfedale backs wasted a couple of excellent potential scoring chances, Kendal tightened their grip and finished the stronger side in the last 20 minutes despite playing into a strong wind.

International class referee David Matthews was generally keen to allow play to flow, but he awarded a 12th-minute penalty to Kendal for a ruck offence after skipper and man of the match Steve Healey stepped inside his tackler to threaten the tryline.

Kendal had the edge in the opening quarter, taking a scrum again the stead and making two turnovers at the breakdown.

Controlling play well, they went close to scoring three minutes from half time when they broke quickly from a scrum inside the Wharefedale 22 and stand-off Casey Mee found a gap to open up play but Paul Dodds knocked forward a difficult final pass with the tryline beckoning.

Wharfedale threatened in the second half, with Chris Armitage powerfully running back a kick after three minutes but his fellow backs fumbled the ball with Kendal looking vulnerable in defence.

Six minutes later, Wharfedale created an even bigger four-to-one overlap when they went on the attack from Jimmy Thompson's chip-kick, but again the ball went forward on the left wing when it looked as if they were queuing up to score.

Instead Kendal extended their lead after 64 minutes.

After a series of forward drives down the left flank, Wharefdale conceded a penalty under pressure in front of the posts and Scott made no mistake.

Kendal then kept the pressure on and won the territorial battle to seal for a memorable double over the Yorkshire side, who were shaping up as title favourites before this setback.