Black Reds face crunch derby with Carlisle in second game
Last updated 11:41, Friday, 06 June 2008
ASPATRIA will entertain Carlisle in the first Cumbrian derby of the season for North Two East on the second weekend of the new season.
The return game at Carlisle’s Warwick Road will be a seasonal clash on December 20.
With Penrith’s relegation from North One there will be six tasty county derby games in North Two East.
Carlisle will host Penrith on November 1 and will make the short trip to Winters Park on February 21.
Aspatria will entertain Penrith on November 15 and travel for the return game on March 14.
Only Aspatria, among the three Cumbrian sides, will start the season on September 13 with an away fixture. They face a lengthy trip to Driffield.
Penrith are at home to Gateshead while Carlisle will entertain League newcomers Billingham.
The last matches of the season could be crucial and by a quirk of the fixtures they are an exact reverse of opening day - Gateshead v Penrith; Aspatria v Driffield and Billingham v Carlisle.
n CUMBRIAN half-back Gavin Beasley is among a completely untried back division for the England RU Counties XV’s opening fixture of the tour to the USA and Canada.
The team will have nine players making their debuts at senior level when they face the USA Eagles A team at Colombia University in New York on Friday.
It’s the first of three games for the tourists who are spending a fortnight away from home.
Only Staffordshire and Manchester centre Scott Rawlings, among the starting line-up behind the scrum, has previously represented the Counties XV, while Lancashire and Wharfedale scrum-half James Doherty, the youngest player in the party, is the only back on the bench to have a Counties shirt.
In the pack, prop Tim Mathias (Devon & Plymouth Albion) and hooker Liam Wordley (Staffordshire & Blackheath), lock Matt Owen (Cheshire & Manchester), and back row pair James Kellard (Essex & Blackheath) and Mark Evans (North Midlands & Moseley) have previous experience at this level.
Beasley played at Twickenham on Sunday for Northumberland when they beat Cornwall in the County Shield final.
He started his career with Egremont and St Bees School and last season was with Tynedale on loan from Newcastle Falcons.
