Minis mark a fine year at Rakewood
CHILDREN ranging from the age of six to 11 celebrated a terrific season for Littleborough rugby’s Mini section in front of packed house at Rakewood.
It was only fitting that on a glorious Sunday afternoon of sunshine that the future of the club would be put into the spotlight to congratulate the effort of players and coaches alike.
Each team has had their own reasons to look back on the past season with fondness and look to the future with a rising smile.
In the first of the teams, Under 7s, coach Adam Bracegirdle was full of praise for his teams’ performances given their infancy to the sport.
For many of them, this has been their first year and despite their inexperience, they gave fantastic accounts of themselves at festivals in Huddersfield and on tour in Southport.
In particular, the latter of the two where opposition coaches were quick to give high praise on the quality of the rugby played and the way in which the Under 7s conducted themselves.
Boro’s Under 8s came into the awards presentation on the back of their most significant success to date as the Sports Tour winners also played at Southport just last week. Some storming performances were an acculumation of hard work in adapting to the changes in the amount of tags before a turnover and hard work to showcase rugby’s core five values.
In their first year of full tackling contact stepping up from tag, Littleborough U9s have adapted superbly losing just four games all season, even managing to squeeze out tricky victories against strong opponents like Rochdale.
While in the Under 10s section, the lads and girls been excellent in making huge improvements to individual performances, going from strength to strength and like other sides in Mini rugby section gave a strong account of themselves at a Sandal tournament. One other big highlight came in a fixture against yorkshire outfit Rishworthians, where they were very competitive and impressive in their performance against a much bigger opposition.
Last but not least in the Under 11s section, the coaches were gleaming in praise for their boys and girls after another spectacular season that has seen them overcome all who stood before them. Many of which are much bigger and older than the U11s; yet despite that all they are tackling fearlessly and showing huge courage to keep getting back to their feet.
Ashton 161, Monton and Weaste 164-4 (Ali Nawaz 58no); Friarmere 108, Austerlands 44; Micklehurst 42 (Mark Buckley 5-16), Middleton 48-0; Oldham 271-4 (Mubasher Khan 98n0, Fiaz Khan 68), Royton 267-7 (Aaron Tesz 117, Adam Boardman 109no, Majid Khan 4-25); Stayley 235-6, Milnrow 234-8 (Shoeb Ahmed 73); Uppermill 131 (Jake Hall 52), Heyside 132-3; Werneth 153-7 (Iftikhar Ahmed 44), Moorside 150 (Peter Broadhurst 61, Niaz Khan 5-12).