Acklam won the County Shield Final beating Sunderland in a very competitive game. The game was played in the true rugby spirit, hard but fair with Acklam coming away with a well deserved victory. The weather conditions were perfect as was the playing surface, so no excuses could of been made by either side. The final was very well refereed by David Swainson from the Durham Referee Society.

Everyone in the Acklam team deserve a mention so I will do that, not only the players to-day but also the non available players. Well done to Sam Burns, Brandon Collings, Brooke Scott, Nathan Marron, Jacob Robinson, Jake Kuka, Dylan Swash, Jack Fox, Nathan Faint, Nathan Harrison, Theo Labonete, Adam Carr, Declan Monaco, Leon Tosh, Brandon Fox, Jon Carr, Joel Nichols, Connor Mitchell plus the players not available Aiden Sergeant, Tom Luke, Nathaniel Marsay and Kieron Ross.

All credit to Sunderland who made this such a good game. A special mention to their Billy Wiz who played at fullback and the wing , he was a handful both in attack and defence. Sunderland had some very large forwards, one in particular who was 6' 5'' and well built, it was a good job we tackled well. Sunderland backs were well organised and moved the ball effectively. The Sunderland hooker has a very good game.

A nervous start by Acklam as they had to defend on their own try line, especially when the Captain had to depart the field for the toilet. The re-vigorated Jacob returned to the field and scored a hat- rick of tries before the final whistle. Nathan Faint at 9 had an influential game as he linked the forwards and backs well. A special mention to Leon Tosh who in the vital stage of the game made a try saving tackle that any senior player would of been proud of. The referee made a special mention of Acklam's No. 7 Nathan Harrison who he thought had a great game.

Acklam opened the scoring with a try in the 10th minute when Nathan Harrison charged down a kick on the Sunderland try line, 5-0. Sunderland replied with their own try 5 minutes later, 5-5. Jacob Robinson opened his account after 20 minutes but Sunderland quickly hit back with a try themselves. This took the game to half time with Acklam leading by the narrowest of margins, 12-10. Acklam had played with plenty of energy but had given away too many penalties and their rucking game was some what untidy.

The second- half saw a much improved performance from Acklam as they scored three tries to Sunderland's one. Acklam centre partnership was proving to have more penetration than their opponents. In the 45th minute Jacob Robinson found space and he ran in his second try from 80 meters. In the 50th minute Acklam scored again but this was possibly the try of the season when several players got their hands on the ball coming from depth and off loading at pace, Jacob finished off the move! Sunderland would not lie down as they hit back and scored their third try from the restart. The final score came in the 55th minute when Nathan Harrison got his brace of tries.

The hard graft of the forwards such as Jon and Adam Carr, Joel Nichols, Theo Labonete, Connor Mitchell, Brandon Fox and Declan Monaco set it up for the speedy backs to take advantage.

Well done lads, great team effort, you did yourselves and the Club proud!

Blaydon Under 16's 37 points v Acklam Under 16's 12 points

Acklam travelled to Blaydon on a bright spring morning with 13 lads.
The trip gave a chance for some of the ESF Lions to renew old friendships .

Thanks goes to our genial hosts who lent us quality players to enable a good game of rugby to be played .

Acklam took the lead with some incisive attacking that resulted in a quality snipe scoring try by captain Alex Faint , conversion competently dispatched by Dec Winward .

Unfortunately , one of our loan players twisted his ankle which meant the end of his match and due to a lack of substitutes the game then carried on with 14 on each side .

The injury proved to be a turning point as Blaydon showed a superiority in the breakdown that gave their team a solid platform to attack the Acklam line .

Blaydon continued to attack and due to poor line speed , a lack of communication and some players performing way below the standard they are capable of the game slipped out of Acklam's hands.

The second half continued like the first half and like too many games this season in that individual errors were exposed and resulted in conceding tries .

Thanks to individual endeavour and some never say die attitude
Acklam forced their way into the opposition's 22 and an unstoppable rolling maul resulted in Max Weston crossing the line for our 2nd & final try , conversion from a difficult angle was missed.

The end score of 37-12 would have been much worse without a core of dedicated individuals who never gave up but we played against a Blaydon with a better team ethic and teams always beat individuals.

As we roll towards the end of a long hard season , the lack of competition for places has allowed people to be satisfied with a level of performance that won't be tolerated in senior rugby.

The under 16's are a good bunch of lads and
I can't wait to see those who work hard & really want to achieve , finish up playing first team rugby.

Thanks George