Lancashire Cup Finals

Should be a cracking days rugby really looking forward to the day,this years competition has been well organised and what a fitting venue for our young players to display their skills.
Good luck to all the teams and heres hoping everyone enjoys the day.

It's just a shame, Sam, that it is on a National Cup semi-final day when both Blackbrook U16s and Maries U16s are away, not to mention others from different age groups. I, and a number of others from Brook were intending to come along to the finals, but we won't be back from Hull until about 6:30.

We hope players, parents and officials all have a great day.

The unfortunate part was Widnes getting a home tie in the Challenge Cup last weekend meaning the stadium was unavailable Sunday. The 8th was our first choice date, the 15th is our reserve date which has clashed with the National Cup semi finals.

Let's just hope and pray for good weather and a great crowd. ALL proceeds are going to be donated by the three Leagues to very deserving children's charities and it would be great to be able to make a substantial donation for those less fortunate youngsters than our own.

If you are free come down for a great day out!!!

Excellent day of youth and junior rugby showcasing the very best of the North West.
Many thanks to all who made it such a great day

Beat me to it Mick.

Some absolutely fantastic rugby on display from each and every side which helped produce some nail biting, tantalising finals with not a single bit of indiscipline, unnecessary aggression evident but simply a superb show of sportsmanship and respect from all of the teams involved.

I would like to place on record our sincere thanks to the day's sponsors, Sponsorbank, without whom we simply would not have been able to set this new benchmark in County Cup Finals, their support, both prior to and on the day itself, helped to make the day such a great success. We hope that they & their guests enjoyed it as much as everyone else did and that this is the start of a long partnership with the competition.

I would also like to thank ...

1. Halton Farnworth Hornets for their fantastic ball-boys who's alertness kept the game flowing by always being ready with a fresh ball.
   
2. The RFL's Danny Parkinson and his team of volunteers who worked tirelessly to get everyone in the right place at the right time and helped us almost sell all of our programmes on the day (we had about 10 left!!).
   
3. Halton Borough Council & the Staff of the Stobart Stadium for facilitating such a superb venue for the player's to display their skills (and for keeping them all fed).
   
4. The RFL's Niel Wood & Carol Savage who helped arrange the sponsorshp and superbly coordinated/arranged all the administrative details and tickets etc.
   
5. All 3 sets of the the North West Counties league's official's who pulled together in unison to ensure the smooth running of the day and, in particular, a mention to Jackie's husband Duncan Clowes who, having worked all night, then spent the entire day tirelessly helping out rather than going home to get some well deserved sleep!!
   
6. To our photographers and video cameraman. Geoff Owen, for his eagerly awaited DVDs, if they are a patch on those we had last season for the NW Counties 13-15's Cup Finals then the players and parents are in for a treat. To Steve Jones of KT8 photography (www.kt8photography.co.uk) who took some phenomenal action photos on behalf of the 13-15's and which are available for all to see in the gallery on his website and to Steve Bostock who similarly took the photo's for release to the media.
   
7. Finally, to the Players, Coaches, Officials, Mums & Dads, Grandmas, Grandads, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles and anyone else who made their way down to cheer and support and who made the day feel so special for all those involved.
   

Click on the thumbnails below to see full size images taken by KT8 Photography on the day.

As previously stated we are, due to the help of all the above and particularly SponsorBank, now in a position to make a substantial four figure donation to our chosen children's hospice and will let everyone know the final figures when everything is added up.

Once again a huge thanks to everyone involved!!!

I'd like to add my appreciation to Sam and everyone involved for inviting me along to the event as well as the Utmost MD. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. The hospitality and stadia facilities were excellent and the event seemed to run very smoothly.

BARLA were represented by chairman Spen Allison and Steve Manning, who I believe helped out with the man of the match decisions.

Spen asked me to relay the following..

"Thanks to all for the invitation, there was some excellent rugby on display, the hospitality was excellent and the event was organised very well. It was well worth the journey!"