YORK City Knights' remarkable win at Halifax was preceded by a similarly stunning success by a representative junior team adopted by the club.

The York Knights Junior Ironsides - who will represent the region in the Canterbury Cup, a junior competition in the forthcoming York 9s festival - competed in a tournament against four other teams at The Shay as a curtain-raiser to the Knights' Arriva Trains Cup quarter-final clash.

And in an excellent team show they swept all before them, beating Elland 24-0, Halifax Vandals 28-0 and, in the final, Siddal 24-0.

For a team that has only been training together for a month they were exceptional performances, especially in defence where they managed to keep all three opposition teams scoreless.

The side - made of club players from each of the local clubs with sides at that age group, namely York Acorn, New Earswick All Blacks and Selby Warriors - will also go for glory at the York 9s over the weekend of June 26-27, where they are set to play in the Canterbury Cup against teams from Bradford, Castleford and Leeds.

Updated: 10:42 Saturday, June 12, 2004