Northampton were well represented in the London 9′s tournament that took place at St Albans the day after the Carnegie Challenge Cup Final. 1 Under 12 team, 2 Under 14 teams and 1 Under 16 team travelled south to the festival with all the teams looking to follow the lead of the Under 12 team and return home with silverware. For the Under 14 teams it was a case of retaining the trophy that their predecessors had won.
In the Under 12′s age group the team were looking to add a second trophy to their haul for 2010. They were successful on this occasion by defeating St Albans in two games. This meant that out of all the junior teams they won more trophies than any other age group.
The coaching team of Campbell and Patchett were naturally delighetd with their charges for bring back 2 trophies to Northampton.
Under 12′s Squad:- James Patchett, Dieter Kempa, Harry Demidiuk, Sam Attfield, Kyle Draper, Adam Pullen, Connor Burgess, Alex Pittaway and Bradley Hirons .
At the Under 14 age group the pool consisted of the Ipswich based team, Eastern Rhinos, and the 2 Northampton teams. The Knights made sure of their place in the final with victories over the Patriots and the Rhinos. The Patriots were unable to make it to the final as they were defeated by the Knights and the Rhinos 8 -4.
The final between the Knights and Rhinos was anything but a close affair with the Knights winning 44 – 4. For the Knights this was the perfect way to end the season with the team being presented with the trophy, winners medals and a t-shirt by a Harlequins RL player.
Knights Squad:- Ben Pointer (C), Tom Bailey, Jamie Thomasson, Josh Dove, Richard Bishop Bailey, Marcus Stock, Lawrence Ward, Daniel Moone, Kiaran Brian, Charlie Hayton, Ollie Furniss and Ross Vernell.
Thomasson was voted as Knights man of the tournament for his pace, skill, power that were used in his long range tries. He was never greedy and at the appropriate momments in the games unleashed Bailey to score try after try.
Patriots squad: Cameron Gregory Ring (c), Alex Tollan, Evaan Reihana, Rufus Ollerhead, Tom Wainwright, Tom Wilkinson, Tom Flavin, Ciaran Eeles, Liam Wood.
The 16′s also competed in the tournament against the hosts, St Albans, Leigh East and Eastern Rhinos. In 3 close matches they were defeated 16-8 by the Centurions, 8-4 by Leigh East and drew 20-20 with the Rhinos.Victory was snatched from the hands of the Knights with a last minute try to the Rhinos.
Knights squad:- Santino Decaro, Jamie Rowe, Essad Al-Zubeidi, Glyn Roff, Sam Mobley, Will Earnshaw, Joe Martin, Wade Colson, Josh Dawes, Sam Dawes, Paul Barrett, Ricardo Albarella, Aidan Power, Dom Ward and Dan Jones.
Pictures courtesy of Frank and Ben Ring.
More photographs can be found at www.my-fundraising-project.co.uk/gallery3/29th-August-2010-London-Rugby-League-Festival
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