MOORTOWN 3rd XV fly-half Steve Gray was £10 the richer after he helped Nestl Rowntree team manager Dave Matthewman end a barren run stretching more than 20 years.

The kind-spirited Nestl players had put up the bounty for anyone who gave the scoring pass to Matthewman, who has struggled to find his way across the whitewash for the past two decades.

In fact, it is so long since Matthewman last scored that he can't remember when it was and who it was against other than it was '20-odd years ago'.

However, when Gray kindly dropped the ball on his own try-line and at the feet of Matthewman, even the 53-year-old lock could not fail to take advantage of the early Christmas present and score.

And, sticking to their vow, the Nestl squad gratefully handed the cash reward over to a rather bemused Gray after the game at the Mille Crux ground on Haxby Road.

"Technically it's not my first try for the club, despite what everyone has been saying," Matthewmen told the Evening Press. "I had a flurry about 20-odd years ago when I scored three or four, but two were given to other players although I did score them.

"I even scored a try and converted it one time, but it was a long time ago.

"I'm just the provider, I'm not a glory boy... well that is my excuse.

"It was an awesome try, by the end of the evening it was from 50 metres out and I had side-stepped everyone and gone over the line with half the team on my back.

"Brian Cottom had said that whoever put me in for a try would get a reward, so they gave the Moortown fly-half the money.

"Our No 8 Jim Bell had scragged him on the line as he had tried to kick the ball clear, but it fell straight on the floor, so I dived on it to score."

Matthewman's try had the desired effect on Nestl as they went on to win the match 22-14.

Pete Shores, Rob Sellers and John Atkin also scored in the victory, while Atkin converted his own try.

Malton and Norton can be thankful that their coaching staff can still pull on the boots when necessary.

First it was assistant-coach Richard John who was drafted in to fill in the back-line, then last Saturday coach Pat Stephenson had to come on to add his experience to the front row.

With prop Carl Rushworth being forced off the field with a broken nose during the derby against Pock, Stephenson came off the bench to take up the charge.

Although he may have been confined to coaching duties in recent years, Stephenson showed he had not lost his touch and was even denied a try when the Pock defence tackled him into the corner.

Meanwhile, Malton's fifth round Powergen Vase game against Halton from Cheshire will kick-off at 2.15pm next Saturday with a large turn-out hoped for.

Losers' award lessens its value

I HAVE to say commiseration to St Peter's School's Under-15s rugby team, who despite winning the Daily Mail Schools Cup at Twickenham missed out on the regional Sport England junior team of the year award.

The gong went to the side St Peter's beat in the final - Outwood Grange School from Wakefield.

Normally, the efforts of the St Peter's boys - which included them going through the season unbeaten and seeing off the challenge of the likes of Millfield School - would have been enough to scoop the prize, but the judges went for Outwood as it was claimed it was their first year playing rugby union, having previously made their name in the 13-a-side code.

That in itself would have been a great reason to take the award, but the school had in fact turned to rugby union the year before - when they won the Yorkshire Under-14s Cup - while their coaching team is packed with 15-a-side experience.

Coach Paul McIntosh has first team experience at Sandal, where his assistant Steve Smith plays for the veterans' side, while Richard Wade, who helped out the side, is a first team regular at Harrogate.

More salt was rubbed into the wounds of the St Peter's School, when Outwood received their trophy at the Grand Hotel in Leeds as part of the BBC Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Humberside sports awards.

Master of ceremonies Harry Gration, himself a former St Peter's pupil, questioned two of the boys how they found the switch from union to league and the reply on both occasions was that they had played union all their life!

St Peter's themselves have been very dignified over the matter with headmaster Andrew Trotman passing on his best to the Outwood School - but surely the clouding of the facts and awarding the prize to the losers has lessened the title?

It is almost like handing Outwood the trophy as a consolation.

Girls on tour

CAMBRIDGE University's women's side had a hugely entertaining tour to Pocklington which they celebrated with a 44-10 win over Leeds Metropolitan.

However, the high-octane play on the field was just an aside to the action that came later, with the ladies partying late into the night.

With the intriguingly named jazz band The Imperial Young Gentleman's Dance Orchestra providing the musical entertainment - courtesy of sponsors TBO - the Cambridge ladies were joined by some of the Leeds Met side, who had decided to make it an impromptu tour.

And with players from Pock and Malton deciding to hang around to join in the festivities, along with a number of Pocklington School pupils who were back for their old boys' weekend, it added up to a lively Percy Road clubhouse.

Pock will continue their musical end to the year next Saturday, when Merovingians full-back Gary Denton will swap his muddy No15 shirt for his 70s gear to front The Cosmic Spiders.

In a scene not unlike that from 'Stars In Their Eyes', singer-cum-rugby player Denton will enter the changing rooms in his rugby kit, but emerge looking like David Bowie.

County set at Peter's

ST PETER'S ability to produce potential stars of the future has been highlighted by the inclusion of ten pupils in the county squad.

Harry Simpson, Joe Shepherd, Andrew Chalmers and Stephen Pike have all represented Yorkshire in the Yorkshire Under-18s group.

Tom Woolsey, Ali Macleod, Will Butler, Ben Hough and Mark Jagger - all members of the successful Daily Mail Cup winning squad - have all represented the Yorkshire U16 Group.

This season's U15s' captain Peter Wackett, who also played in the final back in March, has been selected for the Yorkshire U15 Group.

Updated: 10:11 Saturday, December 14, 2002