In Mowden's 25,000 seater stadium a crowd of several watched a tense, well fought match that could have gone either way but in the end Mowden prevailed and we congratulate them on their victory.

The stadium is certainly impressive and different to the normal environments we play in but the pitch itself was surprisingly poor. There is more grass on the Friarage and conditions underfoot were a tad slippery. The match started with Rovers kicking off and Milky piling into the opposition second row; presumably to see if his bad back was alright. Mowden were showing strongly with some decent runs in forwards and backs but it was Rovers who took the lead. Milky made a little sniping break towards the Mowden line and after a series of forward drives were held up the ball was moved to the backs. Ste Railton cut back against the drift of the defence and though held up on the line he pirouetted his body to go over. Dazz Fawcett landed the conversion to put us 7-0 up. Dazz was kicking well and several times drove us up the field with some fine punts to near the Mowden line. On one such occasion while we were close Mowden turned the ball over and their lanky and rapid left winger made ground up the wing and appeared to be clear until AJ stopped him with an excellent tackle. Unfortunately the winger was still able to pop the ball to a supporting attacker and he went over for a converted try that brought the scores level at 7-7. Both sides then went close before Mowden went into the lead with a poor try from Rovers' perspective. A hopeful punt from them stopped just short of our line and the resulting clearance by us went straight to the Mowden winger. Though he was tackled short of the line Mowden recycled the ball and, for once, we didn't tackle well enough to keep out one of their big lads and he barged over for another converted try. Mowden now led 14-7. The first half drew to a close with an element of farce. Ian Flounders had took a bang to the head which made him even more dazed and confused than normal. However his nominated replacement Tony Ross was nowhere to be found. Apparently Tony had left the arena for a fag! Somehow I don't think Stuart Lancaster has to deal with these types of events. In the end Ian Pinchen consumated his return to Rovers by pulling on the white shirt again.

At half time several pre-planned changes took place to give squad members a game. The half started badly for us though when a Mowden player took a quick tap and deliberately ran one yard into one of our retreating lads and the ref bought it and carded our player for not letting the player run 10 yards. With us a player down Mowden then extended their lead when one of their lads crashed over for a try. The Mowden kicker was in good form and landed his 3rd conversion in a row to put the score at 21-7. All credit to the Rovers' team though they kept battling and conceded no more scores while short-handed. With a full team again we started to put pressure on Mowden. First Dazz put over a penalty for Mowden preventing release which brought us to 10-21 then Ian Pinchen barged his way over out wide. The difficult conversion went wide but we now even closer at 15-21. Momentum was with us and we attacked the Mowden line again and again going close on several occasions. Danny Charters picked up from no. 8 and popped the ball up to Ste Flounders almost on the Mowden try line but Ste could not quite take the pass as the Mowden defence were on him even before he had gathered the ball. On another occasion we took out most of the Mowden defence and then spun the ball wide but a Mowden defender just got a hand to the ball with the final pass to the line open. The referee, who had an excellent game generally by the way, didn't see the knock on and Mowden worked their way upfield and to safety. Despite a last ditch effort of running the ball from virtually our line we just could not fashion another score and the game ended 21-15.

Everyone from both clubs and neutrals alike commented on what a good game it was to watch with the result in doubt virtually until the end. Once again though we congratulate Mowden on winning the cup and look forward to meeting up with them at the presentation evening at the Waterwheel Inn on Friday 22 May.

For our lads it was a tremendous performance and while disappointed they can be proud of their efforts. 20 of the squad had played in the earlier rounds against Northallerton, Acklam, Redcar and Guisborough and they, together with the odd arriviste, deserved their chance here in the final. Thanks also to the excellent support the team received with Rovers' members making themselves heard all through the game. It has been a good season with us winning the Tees Valley Social League, the Whitby 10s and the Pyman Shield as well as being runners up in this final. Thanks to each and every player who pulled on a Rovers shirt over the course of the season. Let's take that commitment on to next year

Finally I have to report that Ste Saunders undefeated run as captain came to an end on Saturday. Which may stop some good natured banter between him and Finbar!

Up the Rovers