Alistair on song to send Cumbria into semi

CUMBRIA booked their place in the County Championship Shield semi-finals with a comprehensive 38-17 win over Leicestershire.

Fly-half Alistair Ledingham was the star of the show, pulling the strings with halfback partner Ben Walker as they ran in five tries.

The home side raced into a 23-7 half-time lead, thanks to tries from Ledingham, Billy Coxon and Greg Smith, and despite a fightback which saw Leicestershire back to within nine points, the fly-half’s second try put the result beyond doubt, with Tom Lindsay sealing the win.

They will face Warwickshire in the final after they guaranteed top spot in Pool 2 last week, with seeing off

in a dead rubber 32-12.

The other semi-final will pit Sussex against Surrey after the former scraped their way past Middlesex at Staines.

The visitors emerged 2927 winners, but only after Jason Lee failed to convert his own try at the death.

Middlesex had raced into a 14-0 lead with tries from Michael Clarke and Sam Portland, only for Sussex to reply with two quick tries before the break from Jake Hills and Huw Jenkins to trail by two points.

Portland’s second try got the home side back on track but Sussex replied with two quick scores of their own and after Lee’s late miss from out wide they nicked the win.

They will take on last year’s champions who saw off 41-12 in a winner-takes-all clash.

Neil Hallett was the architect of the success, scoring a try in a 21-point haul for the visitors for whom Ian White, Matt Noble, Fraser Carlisle and Will Crow also scored tries.

beat Berk50-10 to ensure they avoided bottom spot in Pool 4 thanks in the main to the efforts of winger Guy Nicol and full-back James Monks who scored two tries apiece. bra and suffered a prolapsed disc at the top of his back inside the first five minutes but, playing on adrenaline, and hoping he could run it off, stayed on for 70 minutes.

He said:“It happened at a ruck. I went in to secure the ball, and one of their players came to clear me out and smashed into the back of my neck. I could feel it pop straight away and there was a shooting pain went all the way down my spine.

“I was on the floor for a couple of minutes, but didn’t want to go off in a cup final, with all that adrenaline. I thought it was just an impact injury and I could run it off - playing in the front-row, you get used to taking knocks.”

Harvey briefly celebrated winning the trophy – Barts’ first in over a century – but then went off to do his night delivery shift, travelling to Northampton, Nottingham and Birmingham.

But as the night wore on, the pain in his neck turned into “absolute agony”, and his left arm started to go numb.

X-rays, MRI and CT scans the next day revealed the severity of his injuries.