Otley 46 Kendal 34

 Hat-tricks were the order of the day as Otley piled on the points at home to Kendal in a high-scoring encounter.

James Kleinhorst returned at full back, allowing James Twomey to revert to his favoured position of right wing, while Jack Machie and Ben Thoy were back in the centre.

This meant player-coach Tom Rock was able to move to fly half and the reshuffle resulted in the backs complementing some powerful running by the forwards, Twomey grabbing a hat-trick in the first half and fellow winger James Wood, not to be outdone, running in three in the second period.

Kendal set the early pace, putting pressure on the home line, but a turnover saw the ball go quickly to Twomey, who rounded the cover to race the length of the field.

Kendal replied with a penalty from fly half Mark Ireland but Otley were enjoying themselves.

A foot in touch denied them a score and they were thwarted under the posts but the ball went wide for No 8 Chris Hill to drive over, Twomey landing a fine conversion.

Hill became the provider, giving Twomey a half-chance, and the defence was left for dead.

A break by Thoy put Wood on a run and, when challenged, Twomey was outside him to finish off.

When under pressure on their own line, Otley lost No 6 Adam Malthouse to the sin-bin and Kendal took immediate advantage, No 7 Gary Holmes driving over for Ireland to convert.

They made full use of their advantage to get sub Dan Lowther and Ireland over immediately after the break, the No 10 converting both tries and adding a penalty to take Altrincham into a five-point lead.

However, despite now having hooker Ben Steele with a yellow card, Otley came back strongly.

Wood used his searing pace to good effect, with Kleinhorst adding the conversions plus a penalty.

Kendal snatched a bonus point when an attempted clearance kick from the restart was charged down, centre Dave Barton bundling the ball over the line.