CO-OPERATIVE RLC WOMEN’S GRAND FINALS – Haslams, Derby
Championship Grand Final
KEIGHLEY CATS 18 STANNINGLEY LADIES 14 (AET)
A fierce battle saw Keighley Cats crowned champions, but only after Saima Hussain broke the deadlock with a Golden Point score. The game was tight throughout as the teams who finished top of the Yorkshire League and latterly the Championship Play-Off League did battle one final time for 2010. Player of the match, Stacey Wood, was the first to score for Keighley, finishing Laura Ackroyd’s move, which drew the defence to put Wood clear.
With the conversion missed, Keighley pressed for a further score but a forward pass paved the way for Naomi Westwood to open the scoring for Stanningley, with Rhianion Marshall adding the extras. Keighley fought back with a second try for Wood, scored in a similar fashion to her first, the conversion was again missed. On the twenty minute mark, centre Emma Littlewood outpaced the Cats defence to touch down between the posts, Marshall again successful with the boot to give Stanningley a 12-8 interval lead.
The rest of the half saw both teams trying to outmuscle each other, with some tough tackling and spirited plays in attack. After the break, the game stayed as close, with a further thirteen minutes being played before Keighley’s Keira Burns leapt out of dummy half to cross, after the Cats had driven the ball up the centre of the field earlier in the set. Wood converted to nose Keighley ahead for the first time in the game.
Ten minutes from time, Marshall capitalised on a Cats high shot, taking the two points on offer to level the game at 14-14. Both sides failed to put together a killer blow in the final ten, with errors at the line preventing a decisive result, which came fifteen minutes into Golden Point Time as Hussain finally found the gap to touchdown and claim the game.
CATS
1 Jodee Loader
2 Becky Thompson
3 Saima Hussain
4 Stacey Wood
5 Sarah Cartright
6 Laura Ackroyd
7 Sarah Shillito
8 Angie Pickard
9 Keira Burns
10 Shelly Whitwham
11 Leanne Clegg
12 Louise Clarke
13 Amanda Clegg
(Subs) – all used
14 Leanne Wolum
15 Hannah Govier
16 Sarah Walsh
17 Rachel Pressley
Tries: Wood (4, 16), Burns (53), Hussain (95)
Goals: Wood: 1/3
STANNINGLEY
1 Jodie Lee
2 Rebecca Whitley
3 Frankie Hartwell
4 Emma Littlewood
5 Lesley Bowling
6 Naomi Westwood
7 Kelsey Armistead
8 Leanne Pease
9 Sarah Gaines
10 Steph Geldard
11 Anna Love
12 Vicky LIvesey
13 Rhianion Marshall
(Subs) – all used
14 Chelsea Danby
15 Keeley Cosgrove
16 Aimee Stavely
17 Emily Brierley
Tries: Westwood (11), Littlewood (20)
Goals: Marshall 3/3
Referee: Gareth Evans
