Year 6 duo complete Marston Moor final line-up (From York Press)

Year 6 duo complete Marston Moor final line-up

By Peter Martini »

IT must have been fate.

Woodthorpe and Clifton With Rawcliffe primary schools turned up to the official launch of this year's Marston Moor Cup - and promptly won through to the finals day.

The Marston Moor Cup competition for school teams is part of the York International Rugby League 9s Festival, to be held at Heworth ARLC on Saturday, July 14.

It is organised by York City Knights in conjunction with the York 9s committee, and this year it has been expanded to include teams at every age group from Year 5/6 (primary school) to Year 10.

All the secondary school qualifying tournaments have already been held, and this week it was the turn of the primary schools to battle for a final berth at the York 9s.

Their qualifiers were played at Heworth two days after the official launch, and, purely coincidentally, Woodthorpe and Clifton With Rawcliffe won through, going through their qualifying groups without conceding a point before winning their semi-finals.

Woodthorpe topped Group A' with five wins from five, scoring 60 points in the process, before beating Wigginton, who were second in Group B', 8-4.

Clifton With Rawcliffe topped Group B' with four wins from four, scoring 52 points, and then beat Group A' runners-up Osbaldwick 4-0.

The two victors will now meet again at the Elmpark Way ground to decide the Year 5/6 cup winners.

It was a fitting debut outing for Clifton With Rawcfliffe's new kit, which they had won courtesy of the Knights. For more details, see the Knights Diary Page in today's Press.

The launch of the Marston Moor Cup took place at Clifford's Tower. Also attending, alongside the two schools, were David Murry-Fenwick and Anne Rhodes of the Sealed Knot Civil War re-enactment society.

The York 9s has always had an historic Civil War theme, and the two Sealed Knot characters were Sir Thomas Glemham, who was governor of the city of York at the time of the battle of Marston Moor, and Lady Glemham. The launch of the Marston Moor Cup was staged on Monday, on the anniversary of the battle of Marston Moor.

The full list of Marston Moor Cup finalists is now known. They are: Year 5/6 - Clifton With Rawcliffe v Woodthorpe; Year 7 - Burnholme v Canon Lee; Year 8 - King James (Knaresborough) v Graham (Scarborough); Year 9 - Barlby (Selby) v Millthorpe; Year 10 - Millthorpe v Joseph Rowntree.