Harrogate Festival match report, Old Rishworthians rugby club Under 14's lose to National Champions Sandal in the Final

The end of season presentation was held at the clubhouse on Sunday 7th May.
The highlights of the season were for the mini section the under 7's winning the Harrogate Festival and providing 31 mini players for a half time mini rugby display, in front of nearly 5,000 people during the Leeds Tykes v Saracens match. The U7`s easily beat a Grimsby side and the U8`s won a closely contested game against Huddersfield.
In the junior section, the under 15's had an excellent season ending with a 17 match winning run and 3 under 15's players wining full Yorkshire County honours.
The under 17's season finished after Christmas but there are six or seven players turning out for the club senior 2nd XV side.

Under 6's
The under 6 section completed their first full season at mini rugby and the numbers have grown as the season progressed. We now have a squad of six under 6 players who will form the basis of the under 7's next season and able to play competitive games and six under 5 players who will be able to join in the under 7's squad as they reach their sixth birthday.
William Symms won the most improved player award and Toby Muscat-Baron won the player of the year trophy.

Under 7's
The under 7 section started playing their first competitive fixtures this season. During the season a few more players joined the squad to boost the numbers to 16 players allowing us to often field 2 teams. The highlight of their season was winning the Harrogate Festival by beating Ripon 8-5 and Harrogate 8-5 in the final. The squad also went to the Morley Festival beating Leo’s 5 - 2, but narrowly losing to York, Pocklington, Morley, and narrowly beaten by the winners Old Brods 4 - 5. The under 7's ended their season with a playing record played 25, won 14, drawn 4, lost 7. In all matches they scored 226 tries and conceeded 210.
Jacob Bower won the most improved player award and William Mc Donnall won the player of the year trophy.

Under 8's
The under 8 section started playing competitive fixtures this season and are playing well. There is a squad of 8 players
but we do require more players to build a second team. They started the season playing mini tag rugby but after Christmas merged with the under 9's and played the tackling version of mini rugby. The under 8's ended their season with a playing record played 13, won 4, drawn 1, lost 8
Matthew Harris won the most improved player award and Jack Pilcher won the player of the year trophy.

Under 9's
The under 9 section started to learn the tackling version of mini rugby but due to a shortage of players were unable to play any fixtures until after Christmas. The under 8's merged with the under 9's to allow them to play some games.
Thomas Vaughan won the most improved player award and Jade White won the player of the year trophy.

The coaches would also like to thank all the families and friends who have been so supportive both at home and away games.

Under 15's
The under 15's completed their second season of junior rugby and surpassed last season performance with some excellent running rugby and solid defence ending with a playing record as follows Played 24 Won 21 Lost 3 For 832 Against 181.
The top points scorer was Edward Cockroft with 209 points (17 tries, 56 goals and 4 penalties), second was the leading try scorer Christus Ferneyhough with 30 tries 150 points. Luke Flanagan 95 points and Chris Dyson 92 points were third and fourth just short of the 100 point barrier
36 players have played for the team this season, nobody with 100% appearances. Rogan Costello and Christus Ferneyhough made the most appearances 23 each.
Unlike last year there were no trophies, in the Yorkshire cup they had a walk over against Pocklington and lost 5-7 in the last minute at Doncaster in the second round. In the Harrogate Festival they lost the opening game against Moortown and beat the finalists Hull Ionians, however they failed to reach the final by one try on the try count ruling.
In the friendly games the defeats were at the hands of Doncaster and Hull Ionians, the last defeat back in October. Since that defeat they have gone on to a 17 game winning run. Some of the notable wins were against Lancashire cup semi finalists Leigh, Yorkshire cup semi finalists Wharfedale, Yorkshire cup finalists Doncaster and Cheshire Champions Altrincham Kersal.
At district and county level Nine players were selected to play for West Yorkshire and three (Gilbert Gregory, Edward Cockroft and Christus Ferneyhough) represented Yorkshire against Lancashire.
Tom Holt won the most improved player trophy, back player of year was Edward Cockroft, Forward player of year Rogan Costello and The Roger Bates Trophy for outstanding contribution went to Christus Ferneyhough.

Richard Dyson has created some CD's containing the Under 15's press cuttings, match reports, photos and statistics for the season. As well as the CD’s he can do A4 squad photos on decent photographic paper both at Ł5 with all proceeds to club funds.
He will take orders by phone or E-mail richarddyson@tiscali.co.uk or via Chris. (M 07990 745969)

Under 15's Presentations Slideshow.
Click on arrows to view more photos, click on photo to enlarge.