THERE is a welcome respite from the National League 3 North programme this Saturday for Kendal, whose scheduled home match against Cleckheaton has been postponed because those rivals are involved in the Powergen National Trophy.

It leaves the Black and Ambers - still without a league win in six attempts - grateful for the extra time to regroup and to bring a couple of key injured players back into the fold.

South African fly-half Charl Van Molendorff's return from a broken thumb was put on hold in the 59-12 defeat at Bradford and Bingley last weekend, because the player declared himself unavailable.

He said: "I couldn't make it due to unforeseen circumstances, but I'm raring to go and will be training this week and hope to be able to make a difference."

Also still targeting a comeback for the next match away to Blaydon on November 12 is centre Martin Armstrong, who is recovering from ankle-ligament trouble.

Jon Ladell is now considered unlikely to return this season, and his twin brother Luke is ruled out of an imminent return.

The only comfort Kendal can draw from the league table is that they have played five of the top six teams so far - Blaydon is the sixth - so the picture may not yet be as black as, at first glance, it appears.

Kendal Under-16 Colts did the club proud in a Tens Tournament at Wigton, beating Workington, Keswick B and Moresby on the way to the final before going down to Keswick A 17-0.

Director of Rugby Chris Hayton said: "The youth side at Kendal is thriving thanks to a good relationship with Queen Katherine and Kirkbie Kendal schools, who fortunately both play rugby in the town and send players to us. "

Bradford & Bingley...59 Kendal....................12 LICKING of wounds seems to be a compulsory post-match activity for Kendal at present and on the face of it a nine tries to two defeat suggests no immediate good reason for optimism.

Yet Kendal were never as bad as the bald scoreline in this sixth league defeat suggests. Even though it might seem to be straw-grasping, they did achieve small but not insignificant successes, albeit they were never going to have a bearing on the eventual result.

Crucially, Kendal were totally outplayed out wide by a high-octane Bees threequarter line that man for man looked half a yard faster.

Instead it was a defiant and robust display from the forwards that kept the visitors' interest alive.

Technically, the 'old foxes' in the pack were on their mettle and embarrassed their physically bigger opponents by twice pushing them back over their own tryline with a perfect display of the driving maul.

Unfortunately, by the time the tries arrived in the 20th and 37th minutes, Kendal had already conceded a 19-0 lead and the Bees aptitude for cancelling out any gains almost immediatly meant the visitors turned round 38-12 down at half time.

While Kendal then deprived the hosts of possession for about 10 minutes at the start of the second period, the inability to create an attacking breakthrough in open play was telling.

Predictably they leaked more points as they tired under pressure in the closing stages.

The Bees' early gains came when the visitors left themselves vulnerable by conceding penalties.

Once the Bees got the scent of the 22, a try was almost a certainty and No. 8 Barry Jabosz burst over from charitable turnover ball and flanker Ian Judson twice made the most out of quick penalties in front of goal in the opening quarter of an hour.

Kendal lifted their game and skipper Billy Coxon blasted a hole in midfield to set up a run from Simon Mulholland, who was always trying to ferret an opening.

Although he was held on his break down the left flank, the Bees offended at the ruck and fly-half Andrew Boardley kicked the penalty to the corner.

Lock-forwards Ross Dougherty and Liam Hayton secured good lineout ball throughout and on this occasion it enabled Kendal to maul their way over the tryline with surprising ease against their bulkier opponents with Coxon dropping on the ball for the touch down.

Boardley missed the conversion but at least they were on the scoresheet.

Kendal could ill afford the loss of hard-working centre Graham Muckalt, who was harshly yellow-carded for an alleged high tackle and the Bees soon put winger Tim Bennett in at the corner.

Things were evened up when Bees prop Peter Hall was sinbinned for persistent spoiling and Kendal added a second try, a copy-cat of their first.

This time Dan Bowman emerged with the ball from under the pile of players and Boardley slotted over a neat conversion to reduce the arrears to 31-12.

Kendal were pinned back before half time, however and another try from Bennett, again converted by fly-half Tom Rhodes, cancelled out the good work.

Kendal could make no headway going forward for large parts of the second half until another chance to maul their way into the 22 came but this time they were held up.

The Bees were fairly buzzing at this stage and as Kendal tried to shake up the side with several changes, including bringing Mulholland up to fly-half, they conceded three tries with both Greaves brothers and Jabobsz flying over.

Kendal finished well beaten but perhaps not completely demoralised by the experience.