The North One West scoreline of 52-10 might suggest Carlisle Rugby Club weren’t in the game at Vale of Lune.

With just over half-an-hour gone, and six converted tries in the bag for Vale, Carlisle were looking at their biggest defeat of the season.

A couple of seasons ago, calculators might have been needed by the end of the match, but this current squad simply don’t give up.

Whether Vale just took the foot of the gas, which was unlikely given their mindset, or Carlisle just stuck at it and found a way to get back into the game, it was the Cumbrians who ended the half on the front foot.

They drove Vale up the park and were camped inside their 22 for the rest of the half.

Scrum-half James Telford was desperately unlucky not to be awarded a try in the left corner.

But, eventually, after a lot of effort by the pack, a series of pick and goes from a line-out on the right drove Jack Freshwater over the line right at the end of the half.

With four minutes gone in the second half, Vale’s talisman winger Hall jinked his way through the centre of the defence and bagged his second of the day, and the fears of a cricket score unfolding returned.

Yet Carlisle continued to push forward and following a series of a scrums and the benefit of another penalty in the offing, captain Tom Graham managed to force his way across the try line for another Carlisle score to steady things.

That would be the pattern of the second half, as a lot of it was played in the Vale half, with a brief interlude when they scored another breakaway try.

Their second-half performance more than made up for their first, and if they can take that effort into games for the rest of the season, they’ll finish the season well.

It’s looking increasingly grim for St Benedict’s stuck at the bottom of the table and cut further adrift by the week.

Their latest defeat was at home to Firwood Waterloo when they went under 26-0 and, with 12 games left, they are 18 points from safety.

Four wins "on the bounce" and, with a massive 15 bonus points, Waterloo have now moved up to third place in the table.

They have just signed two players from Burnley of the league below, scrum-half Danny Rowlands, who has played for the England Deaf XV and blindside Liam Canning who both made their debuts at Mirehouse.

The visitors led 19-0 at the break with new forward Canning on the score-sheet along with Jack Hawkins and Luke Nelson touching down. Nick Dyer added two conversions.

With conditions underfoot deteriorating the second half became something of a slog but with the only points coming from a try by Joe Randa, converted by Dyer.