Year 9 Carnegie Champions Girls rugby league.
Lock Lane rugby league club, Castleford, hosted the Yorkshire round of the competition this year, and seven teams were vying for the two places in the National Championships next month. The girls started brightly, although without showing the form that won them the final last year, and disposed of St. Catherine’s from Halifax by two tries to nil. The second game, against Yorkshire champions Castleford, was the crunch game and the game lived up to its billing. Settle started well with Ella Martin and Amber Duxbury using their speed to make good ground in the early stages. The game developed into a defensive battle, with both teams cancelling each other’s attacks out, and a slip up in the Settle defence was enough to let Castleford in, and this turned out to be the deciding score. Settle needed to win their remaining four games in order to progress to the next round and this they duly did, overcoming Holy Trinity, Huddersfield, Keighley Oakbank, South Leeds and Queensbury, Bradford in the process. Lauren Dugdale maintained a presence throughout and was always dangerous on the ball, and Faye Ambler was on top of her game.
The Year 10s went one better than the Year 9s in their tilt at the Yorkshire Championships, winning it on tries scored and setting up yet another Yorkshire Final with Castleford High. The key was the defence, and in particular Lauren Stallwood, Rosie Rushton and Faye Ambler who had immense games playing in the centre, and the team conceded only two tries in their five games. Not to say that their attack lacked bite, and they quickly set their stall out by overcoming South Craven 7 – 1 in the first game, with Stallwood scoring three and Katie Giles with the pick of the bunch with a straight run through four tackles from 30 yards out. In the second, against St Wilfrid’s, Wakefield they scored five tries without reply, with Rachel Carter scoring her first competitive try, and the moment of the match being Thea Middleton’s mighty tackle to deny a certain score and further demoralise their opponents. With straightforward wins against St. Catherine’s and King James’s, Halifax they went into the final game against the old foe, Castleford. Kicking long from the start, Settle pinned Castleford back and forced a turnover on the second tackle, and Stallwood crashed over with a strong run straight at the defence. Cas came back and whilst the rest of the half was played in the Settle half, the defence was never really tested. In the second half Stallwood was adjudged to have made a double move in attempting to make the crucial score and in the next possession Cas broke downfield and only a last ditch tackle from Dugdale saved the score. More tackles form Ambler and Fullalove led to a knock-on and it only remained for Settle to play out the six, but an unfortunate knock-on gifted possession back and the equalising try was scored. With the game ending 1 – 1 it was down to the mathematicians to award the competition to Settle and put both teams into the Nationals.