Indiscipline cost Douglas a position and points in North One West after losing at home to Kendal on a wet day at Port-e-Chee on Saturday.

The Douglas pack was mighty in the scrum, but it was unable to make the advantage count.

Visitors Kendal went ahead after only five minutes when they mauled loose-head prop Glenn Chesher over the Douglas try-line.

They scored again when second-row Chris Evans ploughed through for a 15th-minute try and Chris Park’s conversion posted a 12-0 lead before Douglas found their feet in the scrummage and lineout.

The Douglas front row combination of Owen Carvin, Robert Todd and Simon Hoddinott came on strong, while the restored Seth Waterworth built up a head of steam and lock Nick Hughes made good on the pressure to drive under the retreating Kendal defence for 12-5.

A period of Douglas ascendancy came to naught as two thundering mauls were brought back for infringements, and Kendal centre Nick Carlton slipped the defensive shackles to dart in near the posts for Park to convert.

The 5-19 half-time scoreboard, already radiant through the gloomy daylight despite an earlier-than-advertised kick-off, seemed disconnected to on-field events as the Douglas scrum continued to threaten.

Handling errors and offside penalties hampered progress, and three yellow cards in the second-half really punctured Douglas’s ambition.

Full-back Will Cain was first to be carded, Todd second by dint of team penalty accumulation, and Luke Hyland was the third as a try-saving tackle in the corner was deemed high and a penalty try awarded. Current rules can appear to mitigate against defenders in those situations and Hyland seemed unfortunate.

Injury to Karl Evans saw Douglas introduce Carl Markl-Ferns, and Mark Oldfield made an unfamiliar second-row cameo.

Harry Hewson and Aidan O’Shea were well policed by the Kendal midfield, and although Cameron Findlay impressed at scrum-half in difficult conditions, Kendal kept a clean second-half sheet and Douglas ran out of ideas as much as light.

Douglas squad: Simon Hoddinott, Robert Todd, Owen Carvin, Harry Raven, Nick Hughes, Wilf Kermode, Seth Waterworth, Karl Evans, Cameron Findlay, Luke Hyland, Harry Hewson, Aidan O’Shea, Craig Martin, Charlie Henthorn, Mark Oldfield, Carl Markl-Ferns, Will Cain.

Under-15s junior game ends all square again

As a pre-cursor to the Kendal North One West senior game, a junior match between Douglas under-15s and Vagabonds under-15s kicked 0ff at 1pm in rainy conditions at Port-e-Chee.

This contrived in another draw, 22-22, after the 12-12 opener at Ballafletcher in November.