Charity the winner in special fixture
SUPPORTERS turned out for a special charity match between Whitehall Warriors ARLFC and a team of local veteran rugby league players.
The match at Brighouse Sports Club was to raise funds for Cherubs UK. The charity supports families whose babies have been born with the condition Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, which affects 1 in 2,500 live births and has a survival rate of 50 per cent.
The event was organised by Whitehall Warriors player Ricky Johnson whose baby Finlay was born with CDH and died at Christmas at just eight days old, and veteran player Tony Power who is Finlay's grandad.
They had the help of Whitehall Warriors manager and coach David Beaumont, who gave signed rugby balls as a prize for 'Guess the score', in which tsupporters took part while the match was under way.
The referee was Brighouse Ranger's official and Pennine ARL management member Matthew Barraclough
The veterans took possession from the start and maintained their strong position for the first 20 minutes resulting in the first try of the game by full-back, Richard Cousens.
Whitehall did eventually gain some possession, testing the Veterans' defence with pace, but being rebuffed by strong tackling, which set the scene for the remainder of the game.
At half-time it was 4-0 to the Vets, although Whitehall started stronger in the second half, throwing the ball around with Ricky Middleton and Paul Stead dictating play.
Warriors having no luck down the middle changed ttactics and attempted to use their pace out wide.
However, the Vets scored again with Gary Prentice and Joe McGuiness making good yards down the middle to set up Dougie Lumb for an inside ball off Paul Willans, to just fall over the line making the score. The conversion made it 10-0.
Whitehall responded swiftly after a dubious ball steal and stand-off Paul Stead raced clear to score.
It was not long before Whitehall scored again after good work down the middle from Dan Kelly, Richard Casanove and Andrew Johnson, breaking the line for the first time in the game and scoring under the posts and then levelling the score.
The Veterans were not finished and after good yardage up the field by Stuart Syme, came the try of the game.
The ball went wide to skipper Tony Power, who delayed the pass to put centre Trevor Stead through the gap for a fine try to take the score to 14-10.
With 10 minutes to go Whitehall took the lead through Andrew Johnson breaking clear to offload to Skipper Ricky Johnson who touched down under the posts for an easy conversion and a 16-14 lead.
The Veterans, however, worked their way back up the field with some slick passing and winger Stuart Hill scored the final try of the game resulting in a fully deserved win for the Veterans with the final score at 18-16
Celebrations of the win and funds raised for the charity continued well into the night as the players attended the Cherubs UK Charity Ball at the Brighouse Sports Club in the evening
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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