The festival took a mini league format with the Grastang Navy & Yellow teams playing against, Vale of Lune, Penrith, Warrington, Preston Grasshoppers, Warrington, Kirkby Lonsdale & Kendal.
Despite some hotly contested games Garstang Yellow didn’t quite make it out of the group stage with a win a draw and two close losses to Kirby Londsdale and eventual winners Preston Grasshoppers.

The whole squad played well with special mentions for George Ayers for relentless tagging, Brodie Black for his weaving runs, Oliver Parkinson for organising the defensive line. The other team members Lucas Fallon, Toby Hall, Harry Walls, Archie Lathom & Harry Martin did not go unnoticed as they worked well as a team in supporting each other in play.

Garstang Navy, the U7’s other team went through the group stage as the only unbeaten team with two wins and two draws and deservedly made it through to the semifinal where they met a determined Sandbach side.

Despite it being level at half time Sandbach ramped up the pressure in the second half and came away with a narrow victory to take them into the final.

The organisation of the line was well marshalled by Alex Pattinson, with great running by William Ayers, Ralph Thomas & Dylan Burrows. The speed of Evan Twose, Sam Bloe & Harry Lechley enabled the Garstang side to hold their own in a tight evenly matched game.

Special mentions to Alex Paterson and George Ayers for getting the MoM awards for some great individual displays and excellent sportsmanship.

Extra special mention must go to Cian Gorst who, despite having an operation the week before, insisted on dragging his mum and dad up to Vale so he could support his friends and team mates. Well done Cian.

The U8s first game was against Penrith and the Garstang boys had a good start with Henry Lathom scoring the first try. With Penrith scoring the second, our boys then got some good tags, Tom Birkbeck then charged with the ball and with good support from others Declan McCann scored.
Following a try from Penrith, Henry Lathom SPUN his way to the try line to score again. Penrith finished the first half with another try. 2nd half saw a change of players. Edward Pearson showed his support to the team, resulting in a try from Declan. After some super tagging from the boys the ball was in Thomas Casson’s hands and with a super run down the touchline he scores. Garstang 5 Penrith 6

The U 8s second game against Vale of Lune started with a try from Vale, who went on to score another two in the first half. Garstang, now warmed up from their first game, showed good teamwork and some structured passing resulted in Liam Dashfield scoring twice in the first half.

The second half saw Garstang pushing forward with purpose, some excellent runs from Tom Birkbeck and support from team mates resulted in tries from Henry, Thomas Casson and Edward Pearson. Garstang 7 Vale of Lune 7

The third match was against Wilmslow and the game started again with a try from the opposition. Garstang retaliated with some strong runs and good support saw William Slater score followed by Edward Pearson. Harry Dickinson’s tagging was on form but Wilmslow still proved too quick and scored several times before half time whistle.

Tries from Liam, Edward and Henry came in the second half, but yet again Wilmslow proved a bit too quick to catch, and unfortunately a forward pass resulted in Wilmslow winning the ball for a last try of the game. Garstang 5 wilmslow 9

Garstang were able to progress to the plate semi final, again against Wilmslow, due to their excellent earlier performances. With only 6 players now available the boys worked hard and supported each other well, tries from Declan and Harry Slater in the first half.

Good tagging from William, Edward and Harry D prevented Wilmslow getting away, and with Harry S and Henry scoring we narrowed the gap. The game finished with a stormer of a try from one end of the pitch to other from Harry Slater. Garstang 5 – Wilmslow 7

The U9’s also had a fantastic tournament with seven boys putting body on the line to secure a place in their Plate Semi Final. Despite Garstang being kindly helped out by Penrith they were unable to turn over the eventual winners, Preston Grasshoppers.

All in all, it was a fantastic effort by everyone and can only bode well for the future of Garstang rugby club. Thanks to the Vale of Lune club for organizing a fantastic day and thanks to the weather for it being sunny and warm-ish.