Harrogate Festival

Now that the dust seems to have settled on an incredibly controversial day of competition, it’s perhaps appropriate for me to finally put my twopenneth worth in..................... Whilst it is tragic that two horses died competing in the Grand National, accidents do happen to both horse and rider in the sport and, personally, I wouldn’t advocate further sanitising of the great race.
Fortunately, there was no such controversy (though plenty of dust) at Harrogate as once again we were treated to a splendid days rugby. I don’t know whether it was the short-timed games, or the bone hard conditions that made the rugby so open, but the scoring was very high and the action very fluid in comparison to the hour long versions that we’re used to playing.
We arrived at a gloriously sunny Harrogate without a clue about who we would be facing, a situation unaltered after the draw was made as we had, unsurprisingly, being pitched into a group with two touring teams, Saffron Waldron (Essex) and Preston Grasshoppers (Lancs).
Unfortunately for Preston, our group was allotted a pitch that had fewer blades of grass than players on it, had they been called Preston Dust-hoppers they might have been more at home, as it was the conditions made fast open rugby possible and clearly didn’t play to a big teams strengths , with York able to run up a big score in the short time allotted and enjoying the luxury of withdrawing key players in the second half, for the presumably tougher tasks ahead. 29-0.
Saffron Waldron ought really have provided that test as runners-up in this festival last season. However, the meagre return of a 10-0 victory was more a testament to lackadaisical play by York than any particularly strong play from our opponents. In short it was a poor game and a poor performance from a York team who looked as if they thought the result would be a formality. In the end just about enough was done to ensure victory and our further participation in the competition.
This did not augur well for our Semi-Final against West Park Leeds, as we know that they’re no mugs and any over-confidence or slackening of the pace would surely be punished by a decent outfit. However, a different York turned up for this game and in perhaps the performance of the season they were simply scintillating, destroying WPL 41-5 in a very one-sided contest. When the mood takes them, the lads can be virtually unplayable and as I wandered to the clubhouse following the final whistle for a short comfort break, I expected to return to see more of the same in the final against Bowden as they suddenly seemed very switched on.
Walking back towards the pitch I was surprised to see that the game had already started, after what must’ve been only a short break, with York facing a penalty just inside their half. It turned out to be the first of 11 penalties that I counted awarded to our opponents throughout the game, more than we had conceded in our first three games, against none awarded to us. Needless-to-say, against a good side (and make no mistake, Bowden are a very good side, their comprehensive dismantling of Harrogate in the other semi was spectacular), it is difficult to maintain any momentum or hold any territory won when penalised with such regularity. Still the game was finely balanced with just an unconverted try separating the teams until a minute or two before the end, when a depressingly familiar toot on the whistle gave Bowden a penalty under our sticks, with the 3 pointer taking them more than a score ahead. 8-0.
And so we finished runners-up, but left with heads held high having played some fantastic rugby throughout the day and with a night enjoying the attractions of Scarborough to look forward to. Congratulations to Bowden, deserving winners having also played some brilliant stuff.
Scorers
It was a day that I preferred to enjoy, so to speak, and so an early decision was made to abandon attempts at keeping a tally.
The version of events as described in the report represent the writers own views and should not be taken as representative of York RUFCs