Ambleside Centurions were 42-5 winners against their local rivals Windermere in Counties 1 Cumbria to complete a second season’s double.
If anyone at Galava Park had been told 29 months ago that Ambleside would go on to complete league doubles over Windermere in the next two seasons they would never have believed it possible.
In November 2023 Ambleside had been one game away from folding, possibly forever, given the problems the club had with player recruitment locally due to the cost of affordable housing and the number of second homes in the village.
Massive credit must go to coach Matty Kaye for the job he has done with Ambleside, taking them from a poor social team two years ago to a very credible league team who have guaranteed a position of ninth in a 14-team league in only their second season.
Credit also to coaches Ollie Chaplow and Dan Harrison at Windermere for their efforts in assuring their side finished just one place behind their Lakes neighbours.
However, if both clubs are to continue and grow they need an influx of new young players and the club said it was something that only the RFU could help them with by reappointing a local rugby union community coach to go into local schools to bring rugby to boys and girls and help guide them into local rugby clubs.
The RFU made the likes of Garry Holmes redundant in 2020 and states it hopes to have a replacement for him in the area by 2030. However, the club said at the rate people were leaving the game will be too late for traditional local village clubs like Windermere and Ambleside.
As for the game the car park, club house and terraces were as full as anyone could ever remember seeing them for this historical local derby game that has been played for over 100 years.
Windermere had elected to play with the wind and both teams showed signs of nerves in the first ten minutes probably partly due to the size of the crowd and the impassioned shouts from the terraces.
Slowly Ambleside play-maker Jack Akrigg managed to get his back line moving with Sean Tebbutt back at inside centre making a welcome return to the Centurionsside.
After 12 minutes Tebbutt ran a great line off Akrigg’s shoulder and crashed over in the corner. Cameron Penn had not brought his kicking boots with him and only landed one subsequent conversion.
Akrigg showed little finesse with the second try, taking the ball at pace from 15 yards out and crashing through the Windermere defence to take the score to 12-0 with Penn’s single conversion.
Warming to the task Windermere captain Dan Harrison rallied the troops and they came charging back with some great kicking from Bertie Hodgson which kept the Centurions in their own 22.
Windermere’s line-outs and rolling mauls were precise and strong and continually pushed Ambleside back which eventually led to Aaron Robinson going over in the corner for an unconverted try.
A frantic first half ended with Ambleside still leading 12-5 but concerned over previous occasions this season when they have lost momentum in the second-half of matches.
Not this time as the Centurions proceeded to produce the best 40 minutes of rugby seen at Galava Park for many a year.
The forwards and impact players off the bench put Windermere under constant pressure and Ambleside went on to score six unanswered unconverted tries.
It started with Penn scooting over for the third try, and he then slid over for the fourth in the corner.
Tadgh Butler, rampaging all over the pitch, then took three defenders with him as he crash over to take it to 27-5.
Tebbutt scored the next try after smooth hands from Dan Akrigg and Ben Glynn put him clear to score.
As Windermere started to tire the Ambleside bomb squad off the bench kept the momentum going and next to cross in the corner was Michael Burton, regarded as their find of the season.
It was quite fitting that the last try of the game came from Tebbutt to complete his first hat-trick for the club.
Man of the match for Windermere was ex-Ambleside player Francisco Cruz Hall who rumbled down the pitch at every opportunity.
Man of the Match for Ambleside, as agreed by all three coaches, was Josh Wright who had his best game for the club in over 16 years.
Coach Kaye said: “Josh was a man possessed and he was just on it for the full 80 minutes, a true credit to the club as was every single player in the squad for Ambleside.”
