North West Regional 'Carnegie Champion College Tournament'

Semi Finals and Final held at Wilmere Lane Sports Ground

Wednesday 6th February 2008

Finalist Winners -
PRIESTLEY COLLEGE (Warrington)

Congratulations to the winning Team - Players & Coaching/Management staff.

[Please scroll to bottom of page for final scores, etc]
 
The HFH Management Committee would like to thank RON SUTTON for the sterling voluntary work
he dedicates to the HFH Club on the photographic front.

 And "Thank You" to the Match Officials. 

The inaugural staging of the North West Regional 'Carnegie Champion College Tournament' at Wilmere Lane Sports Ground, was a total success. Spectators were entertained by some thrilling, and close fought score lines in each game.

Final results were as follows:

North West SEMI FINALS:

PRIESTLEY (Warrington) 06 verses Carmel (St Helens) 04

Wigan & Leigh Colleges 05 verses ST HELENS COLLEGE 14

North West THIRD place Play-off:

Carmel (St Helens) 12 verses WIGAN & LEIGH COLLEGES 16

North West FINAL:

PRIESTLEY (Warrington) 19* verses St Helens College 18

[* Drop goal during Golden Point time]

Priestley College, St Helens College and Wigan & Leigh College will now go on to represent the North West Region in the National Stages.

The HFH Management Committee would like to thank all those HFH volunteers for offering their time and for making this inaugural rugby event, such a big success.

This can only be summed up by the comments forwarded to the HFH Club from The RFL.......

"Can I pass my thanks on to your colleagues and yourself for doing a wonderful job on Wednesday.The event ran very smoothly and this was mainly down to the planning, organisation and effort from everyone at HFH."

Halton Farnworth Hornets are proud to be asked to stage the two Semi Finals and Final of the North West stages of the Carnegie Champion Colleges Tournament cup.

This will take place on WEDNESDAY 6th FEBRUARY 2008, at Wilmere Lane Sports Ground.

This new inaugural tournament has been developed by the RFL and stems from the success of the Carnegie Champion Schools Tournament.

Launched in January 2008, the Carnegie Champion Colleges Tournament involves Sixth Forms and FE Colleges throughout the country being invited to participate in the competition, with the ultimate aim of finding the best COLLEGE team in the UK.

The tournament began at a Regional Level (North West, Yorkshire, Midlands, etc) in early January 2008, and was spread over a four week period.

The National Stages start mid February, and culminate in the Carnegie Colleges National Final on Wednesday 12th March 2008 at Headingley Stadium, Leeds.

The North West Region has been allocated THREE places in the National Stages of the competition.

As far as the Halton Farnworth Hornets are concerned, this means they will be staging FOUR games of Rugby League at the Wilmere Lane Sports Ground on Wednesday 6th February 2008.

Here is the schedule of events for the day:

WEDNESDAY 6th FEBRUARY 2008

1:30pm Kick-off

[SEMI FINAL - ONE]

Pitch No1:

PRIESTLEY (Warrington) verses CARMEL (St Helens)

1:30pm kick-off

[SEMI FINAL - TWO]

Pitch No2:

WIGAN & LEIGH COLLEGE verses ST HELENS COLLEGE

2:40pm Kick-off

[NORTH WEST FINAL]

Pitch No1:

Winner SEMI FINAL - ONE verses Winner SEMI  FINAL – TWO

2:40pm Kick-off

[THIRD Place Play-off]

Pitch No2:

Loser SEMI FINAL - ONE verses Loser SEMI FINAL – TWO

At approximately 3:30pm, presentations will be made by Terry O’Conner, Sporting Director of Widnes Vikings, to the North West winning finalists.

The NW winning finalists, along with the NW runners-up finalists and the third place play-off winners, will all go forward for seeding into the National Stages of the competition.

If you can, try and get to Wilmere Lane Sports Ground on the Wednesday afternoon and witness the North West Semi Finals (two games), the third position play-off and the Final of the Carnegie Champion Colleges Tournament 2008.

You’ll be most welcome if you attend and support this free RL inaugural tournament, and if you start feeling hungry or thirsty, we can also help you out there too!

Finally, if you would like to see how each team has performed throughout the course of this tournament, then please scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the file.

You can also view the tournament 'flyer' which has been used for advertising this new Rugby League tournament.

UPDATE02 [12/02/2009 - RFL/SRL Match Report & Team Photographs]

In a repeat of last year’s final, St Helens faced Wigan & Leigh in the North West Carnegie Champion Colleges Final 2009, hosted by Halton Farnworth Hornets ARLFC.

Despite the cold and wet conditions, both teams played enterprising rugby in the opening quarter and it was St Helens who opened the scoring in the fifth minute when centre Joshua Owen powered over from fifteen metres out.

Wigan & Leigh had plenty of possession and field position; reducing the score line to 04 - 02 in the eleventh minute with a penalty kick by scrum half Ben Mullen.

In a first half dominated by strong defence, St Helens created a rare overlap on their left hand side and an excellent passing movement resulted in winger John Arnold touching down in the corner.  Scrum-half Steven Taylor was unable to add the conversion.

Just before half-time St Helens stand-off Jordan Gibson suffered a back injury which forced him out of the game.

Half-time score:  St Helens 08 – 02 Wigan & Leigh

The second half started under persistent rain; tough tackling forced numerous errors and caused several turnovers in possession.

Wigan & Leigh used this early possession to their advantage, putting the St Helens’ try-line under pressure but were unable to convert this into a score.

The game turned into a forward battle and despite a couple of long-range breaks by Wigan & Leigh’s interchanges, it was St Helens who completed the scoring on sixty minutes when winger John Arnold forced his way over despite a two man tackle.

Full-time score: St Helens 12 – 02 Wigan & Leigh 

The presentation of medals and trophies was conducted by Widnes Vikings RLFC representatives Shane Grady and Josh Simm.

Player of the match: St Helens #9 – Ian Marren

Quotes:

James Brabin (Wigan & Leigh) –
“We have no arguments about the final score.  We had our chances in the second half but did not take them.”

Chris Mason (St Helens) – “These teams drew their last fixture, so we were expecting a tough encounter.  I thought our forwards were superb today and were the main difference.  We are now looking forward to the National Competition”

Wigan & Leigh Team:

1. Ross Shepard, 2. Andrew Bentham, 3. Danny Gaskell, 4. Sam Shepard, 5. Richard Gillespie, 6. Ryan Smith,
7. Ben Mullen, 8. Dom Crosby, 9. Josh Hill, 10. Andrew Maunder, 11. Scott Dean, 12. Benet Thomas,
13. Josh Rogerson, 14. Ryan Brierley, 15. Ross Henderson, 16. Dave Woods, 17. Jacob Kinney

St Helens Team:

1. Steve Barton, 2. John Arnold, 3. Joshua Owen, 4. Jamie Mortimer, 5. Karl Dingsdale, 6. Jordan Gibson, 
Steven Taylor, 8. Ian Slater, 9. Ian Marren, 10. Daniel Burgan, 11. Christopher Atherton, 12. Ben Granger,
13. David Sutton, 14. Ryan Williams, 15. Matthew Causer, 16. Wayne Griffiths, 17. Thomas Leyland

UPDATE01 [11/02/2009 - Results]

St Helens colleges nudged Wigan & Leigh colleges out of the Carnegie Champion North West Champion Cup in what turned out to be a close encounter at Wilmere Lane Sports Ground (WLSG).

Both sides should be praised for producing some outstanding Rugby League in cold, wet and windy conditions. Surprisingly, there were very few knock-ons even though the player’s fingers must have been dropping off.

With plenty of Carnegie advertising livery covering most of the two side lines, the rugby sticks and the flag positions, it was pretty obvious which cup competition was being played for.

It was close to half time when a sad incident occurred and a player remained lying on his back and prostrate on the ground, seemingly unable to move and in obvious pain. With the team attendants soon on the scene, the process of assessing the true nature of the player’s injury began to take some time. So much so, that the referee blow for half time.

Both teams retired to the changing rooms, while the injured player’s condition concluded that an ambulance would be required.  When both teams re-emerged from the changing rooms it was obvious that the game couldn’t restart. An alternative proposition was proposed and the game was switched to an adjacent pitch. A quick reshuffle of the post protectors, etc, allowed the game to get underway.

In the meantime, the ambulance officers were attending to the injured player and bracing him up ready for a stretcher move across the pitch and to the ambulance.

On the other pitch, St Helens colleges had stretched their lead to 12 – 02 and when the final whistle was sounded, the loudest shouts came from the St Helens colleges’ players, who were celebrating their well fought out battle with the opposition, by retaining the 12 – 02 margin.

This was yet another occasion whereby a ‘Partnership’ working arrangement was able to ‘deliver the goods’. This was between the RFL, represented by John Farrell, and the HFH Club.

Dedication and commitment are the key traits of ensuring a successful outcome.

A large vote of thanks goes to those HFH volunteers who dedicated their own time in seeing that this competition could be held at WLSG, and that our guests were treated to a quality reception.

The HFH Club hopes that all visitors enjoyed the experience.

Halton Farnworth Hornets arlfc

Are honoured once again to be asked to stage theFinal of the
Carnegie Champion Colleges North West Final 2009.

This will be staged at Wilmere Lane Sports Ground between
St Helens and Wigan & Leigh
on
WEDNESDAY 11th FEBRUARY 2009

Kick-off is scheduled for 2:30pm and spectators are most welcome.
Hot and cold drinks, refreshments, etc, will be available in the
Annexe Building to purchase.