Some tight five forwards would describe today's conditions as ideal for rugby - 3 inches of cloying mud , dense fog and a greasy rugby ball . Although we didn't make it through to the last four in either the plate or cup the boys did their club proud this morning . Drawn in pool D (aka the pool of death ) Stockton faced Redcar, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and the unknown quantity of Ryton. To cut a long , muddy story short we did our usual which was to start sluggishly and improve through each match. The first three games were desperately close and we could have won any of them on another day. All teams in the pool played well and in a great spirit. We have learnt a lot from our opponents today and will look to put this into practice.

A huge thanks to my long suffering better half Karen for all her help (lines woman,medic, squad organiser)and to all the parents who helped time the matches, froze for literally hours on the touch line and roared the lads along. A special award goes to Isaac for the most interesting sculpture from mud .