Under 12's - Honours Shared at Baildon Fesitival of Rugby....

A glorious Autumnal morning awaited the Bees as the players took the field in the annual Baildon Fesival of Rugby. Teams from Baildon, Aireborough and Bradford Salem meant that we would play 3 matches of 20 minutes each.

Despite it being the start of the Half Term holiday a squad of 12 players had made themselves available for selection. However, reduced numbers from the other teams meant that we agreed to a 10 man team with rolling substitutions to enable fair play time for the squad.

The opening match against Baildon was a world wind of activity for the Bees with end to end rugby from both teams. With a lack of concentration opening up holes in our defence after we had taken a 4-2 lead, the game finally settled into a 5-5 draw with a hat trick of tries from Sam Mantle (3), Tom Deacon and Sam Bryan. Its good to see our leading try scorer Sam Mantle now believing that he really can out run a defence!

As the boys settled down, the second match against Aireborough saw a more composed Bees side run out 4-2 winners with some solid rugby played by the team with good passing, support play and some sterling defence, with Sam Mantle grabbing another brace with support from Louis Milner.

The final game against Bradford Salem again became quite a bruising encounter with Salems physical presence overwhelming The Bees and Salem running in tries quite freely as our boys began to tire. The final score of 0-7 perhaps flattered our opponents though the match was marred and perhaps influenced by an injury early in the game to Sam Bryan.

The squad is starting to self believe in itself and the boys are coming together well as a team. Lots of practice still required on tackling, faster ball from the rucks and our support play will begin to reap the dividends over coming weeks.

Speedy recovery Sam and huge thanks to Baildon Club Doctor - Dr Mark Purvis, Baildon RFC and our team Photographer Dale Deacon for some great action shots.

Bees Man of the Match – Sam Mantle

Team: Luka Atanaskovic, Sam Bryan (Capt), Thomas Carnelly, Sam Conroy, Phil Clay, Ben Feather, Connor Gill, Emilio Horn, Callum McGinty, Sam Mantle, Louis Milner, Niall Turner