An outstanding year of unprecedented success

10:31am Tuesday 13th May 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

AS the 2007/08 season drew to an end, Lymm RFC under eights celebrated an outstanding year of unprecedented success at their end of season party at Crouchley Lane on Sunday.

To follow up on last season's festival success at Wilmslow, Cheshire and Bahrain, the under eights squad won an incredible six festival trophies across England and Wales during 2007/08.

The latter festivals were achieved as part of a back-to-back quadruple success.

The Lymm club has never seen such a level of success in one of its junior teams and this is a great achievement for the players, coaching staff and parent supporters.

Chester were defeated by nine tries to two in the Manchester Festival on September 30 and then HullIonians were beaten 9-2 in the Huddersfield Festival on March 9, Macclesfield were defeated 4-2 in the Cheshire County Festival on April 13, Leeds' West Park were beaten 3-0 in the Harrogate Super 10 Festival on April 20, Widnes were defeated 5-0 in the Rochdale Festival on April 27 and Rhiwbina were defeated 3-2 in the Abergavenny Festival on May 4.

The season started in great fashion winning the Manchester Plate 9-2 against Chester.

Despite being early season, the boys were in great form and ran out easy winners - a sign of things to come later in the season.

In March, the under eights warmed up for the April Festival season by winning the Huddersfield Festival, beating Yorkshire and Humberside opposition and only conceding one try throughout the Festival.

In April, they were the only age group at the Lymm club to win the prestigious Cheshire Festival and defeated all the teams in the county including Crewe and Nantwich, Chester, Anselmians, Altrincham Kersal and Macclesfield.

That was possibly the highlight of the season, beating arch rivals Macclesfield at Priory Park, Macclesfield.

The following week, the boys secured Festival success outside their normal playing area by beating the Yorkshire champions, West Park, Leeds, at the prestigious Harrogate Super 10 Festival.

Along the way the boys defeated tough opposition from Sheffield, Harrogate and Cleckheaton.

On the last weekend in April, on a muddy and rainy day in North Lancashire, the boys defeated the best teams in Lancashire including Blackburn, near rivals Warrington and Widnes to win the much coveted Rochdale Festival.

Incredibl,y the boys did not concede a single try in the entire Festival, showing the outstanding defensive organisation in the team.

To finish the season, the boys participated in the Abergavenny Festival, the largest in Wales.

Nearly 100 people from Lymm travelled to south Wales and yet again the boys came away with the Festival Trophy, beating Builth Wells, last year's winners, Abertillery, a club with famous traditions and many Welsh internationals, and then the champion Welsh team, Rhiwbina in the final 3-2.

That Festival victory was even more remarkable as the boys played to Welsh rules.

Nick Hughes, head coach, said: "Rugby football has always been strong in Lymm and the surrounding area.

"Our track record in developing young talent is demonstrated with Dave Strettle, who won three full caps for England in 2006/07.

"Going forward, we want to set new standards for our mini and juniors to ensure a steady pipeline of top class rugby players into our first XV squad.

"In the under eights, we have an outstanding team in the early years of development, but it is important that everyone in the squad is given an opportunity.

"This season 21 boys out of the 30 squad have won a Festival medal for their efforts, demonstrating the squad strength and team ethic in place at the Lymm club."

The under sevens squad are following fast on the heels of the under eights squad with two Festival wins this season at Hoylake and Abergavenny plus a joint winners title at Huddersfield.

All the boys in both squads attend Lymm and district schools including: Cherry Tree, Ravenbank, Statham, Oughtringhton, Thelwall, High Legh, Irlam Primary, Little Bollington, Woolston C of E and St Wilfreds.

The squads will now break for the off-season and recommence training for the 2008/09 season in late summer. Lymm have spots available in most of their squads for 2008/09.

If anyone is interested in joining any of their age groups between 6 to 18, contact Nick Hughes on 0783 430 7556 or email nhughes1007@aol.com Under eights squad: James Sherlock, George Hughes, William Cauldwell, Neil Llewelyn, Joe Murphy, George Monaghan, Morgan Broadbent., Luke Diamond, Ben Corrigan George Harvey, Jack Porteus, Alex Galloway, Harvey Metcalfe, George Smith, Max Ure, Rory Foster, Leon Passley, Francis Young, Jack Sidebottom, Tom Carroll, Max Shaw, Thomas Copeland, Denzyl Passley, James Daly, Joshua Fradgley, Lewis Oldknow, James Fraser, Patrick O' Hara, Henry Ives, Sam Lloyd, Jake Hallam Under sevens squad: Mason Beardsworth, Max Collins, Joe Cox, Ricardo Chinea, Patrick Dempsey, Elliot Down, Daniel Moore, Sam Eaton, Cameron Ellam, Cameron Ferguson, Luke Greenwood, Aaron Hughes, Oliver Horsfield, Joe Johnson, Henry Lloyd, Archie Macauley, Euan Murphy, Ryan Murray, Jack Nowell, Callum Parry, Oliver Patterson, Harry Pike, Harry Ratcliffe, James Rooney, Alfie Simpson, Jack Wadsworth, Max Le Flohic, John Sodhi, George Todd, Tedd Williams, James Stuart.