On a glorious sunny day in Ambleside, the annual Galava Shield was held to mark the club’s 150th anniversary year.
Teams had travelled from across Cumbria and Manchester to take part, with the home team fielding a squad of 24 players despite serious injuries to Rory Smythe and Lewis Littleman.
The tournament teams were Ambleside Centurions, The Bury Black Puddings, Trafford MV, and Furness Vets.
Each team played each other in a round robin followed by a final at the end of the day to see who took home the Galava Shield.
Trafford played Furness Vets first with the older and more physical Furness players rolling back the years to use their many years of rugby experience to outplay and out fox a very young Trafford side, who to their credit never gave upright t the final whistle.
Ambleside played Bury next and in the first half no quarter was given until the explosive raw power of Orlando Hogg playing for Ambleside blasted a hole through the Bury defence.
It was nip and took in the second half until Jack Green showed his silky skills to cross for a try set up by Joe Akrigg playing only his second game of the season. Ambleside proved to strong and won 28 to 5 in the end.
Bury went straight on to play Furness Vets in the third game and the old boys continued to roll back the years and pretty much demolished a spirited Bury side who found the weather and Furness just too hot to handle.
Next a much-changed Ambleside team played the Trafford young flyers and Ambleside found it hard to gel having made so many changes with such a large squad to rotate.
Ambleside’s experience came through in the end with Evans the powerful Welsh number eight for Ambleside powering over under the sticks for the decisive try of the game. Other scorers were Akrigg, Messenger, and Larkin all converted by Charles Penn.
Trafford played bury in the penultimate game and the young Trafford players now showed that you can beat many things but not youth over 80 minutes.
The game ebbed and flowed with Bury nicking the result at the death to set up a final between Ambleside Centurions and Furness Vets.
Both teams played their strongest 15 players at the start of the game and straight away everyone new no quarter was going to be given by either team as they both wanted to walk away with the main trophy at the end of the day.
Furness adapted quicker to the increased physicality of the game and crashed over from a slow but effective rolling maul.
The conversion was missed but almost straight from the restart Furness pressed the Ambleside line again crashing over again when their star winger Pukman caught and gathered a high kick to score out wide.
After half time and some stern words from coach Kaye Ambleside roared back into the game matching and increasing the level of physicality Furness had brought over from the west coast, tempers flared a little when someone lost a handbag but nothing the referee could not sort out with a few stern words.
Ambleside, stirred on by the introduction of Kaye at scrum half started to control and dictate field position turning the older Furness forward’s round and tiring them out.
Francisco Cruz-Hall for Ambleside showing his metal by crunching the Furness scrumhalf’s ribs with a tackle that the scrum half’s mother would have felt back in Furness.
Momentum started to shift Ambleside’s way and Bayliss squeezed over to take the score to 10-7 to Furness.
Ambleside pushed for the winning try but started to leave gaps in defence and in the last two minutes Furness pounced on a loose ball to go in under the sticks and convert to make the final score Furness Vets 17 , Ambleside Centurions 7, a well deserved victory for Furness on the day, with player of the tournament being awarded to the 52-year-old Furness scrum half Craig McKinnon.
Craig collected the trophy for the Victorious Vets team who vowed to return next year to defend the trophy.
The revelry continued well into the night with all three teams having travelled to the event by coach, and Ambleside’s social secretary for the night Eddie Messenger making it a day and a night to remember for everyone.
This Saturday, Ambleside hosts its first over-18s touch rugby competition for many years with teams coming from all parts of the county. Kick-off for the first game is at 1pm with still time to enter by emailing claregelderd@yahoo.co.uk
