LEADBITTER UPBEAT AFTER DAY OF DRAMA

COACH Leadbitter is renowned for his relentless enthusiasm in the face of defeat, a man who can always take something positive from any knock back.

And with a sporting CV that includes one cap for Scotland, all be it at rugby league, he’s well used to losing.

So it was no surprise that after four hours of action in the blustery badlands of North Shields, in which the two Alnwick teams played a total of eight games, failed to win any and let in 28 tries, he was still talking up his team’s chances this season.

“Throughout the tournament I felt the Alnwick boys got better and better, they fought harder,” he said.

“We might have lost, but we showed guts against some much bigger players.”

There was truth in that, but the size of some of the opposition was a real concern. Percy Park in particular fielding a man mountain at wing who, according to several Alnwick players had a moustache.

The so-called North Tyneside “Friendly Festival” saw Alnwick trying to field two 10-a side teams, Alnwick 1 and Alnwick 2, but with several regular players unable to show up, the coaches had just 18 to choose from, so mix and match became the order of the day.

Callum Hindhaugh was late arriving, but only because his dad had failed to read the tournament details and was still at home 20 minutes before his son was due on the pitch for match one.

That game against Northern 2 was one of the highlights of the day - one of three draws for the boys in blue.

James Keane showed some real promise all day and came very close to scoring a spectacular try, but was just caught by the Northern defence inches from glory.

Northern had taken an early lead, but thanks to a clever try from mighty Drew Thompson, who won the ball at a line-out close to the opposition line and lunged over for the touchdown, Alnwick 2 went level and that’s how it stayed until the final whistle.

The wheels came off the Alnwick bus from then on though, with Alnwick 1 suffering a 7-2 drubbing from Northern 1, who looked sharper and faster in mind and body throughout.

Josh Lowes managed to make the most of a rare Northern blunder for a consolation try and good work from George Cockayne put Mark Roberts through for a second Alnwick touchdown, but we were second best by some margin.

Rockcliff were next up and couldn’t believe their luck, one up after less than a minute thanks to poor blue defending. Coach Gaines put on his sunglasses, but it was still hard to watch.

Stern words from the coaching team at half-time, but the boys continued to struggle and the final whistle couldn’t come soon enough with Rockcliff six nil up at the end.

Alnwick 2 were in action next against Rockcliff 2. It was a thumping encounter with the blues tackling well all over the pitch.

After six minutes it was all square at one try each, George Cockayne having scored ours, then with just seconds left in the first half a clever miss pass by the Rockcliff fly half wrong-footed the entire Alnwick defence and their winger had an easy touch down.

New boys Isaac Racey and Ethan Hall, voted joint “Men of the Day” by Coach Leadbitter for their valiant efforts, continued to play well, and with Josh Lowes running on to a lovely pass from Harry Paul to claim a second try there was something to cheer, but it was too late in the day. Final score 2-3 to Rockcliff.

Novos 2 then thumped Alnwick 2 by five tries to one - ours from that man Lowes again.

Controversy then raged as Alnwick 1 faced Novos 1. Early tries from Reece Gaines and speedy James Stanley put us 2-1 up, but the Novos referee then killed off a great Alnwick attack that had left us with a real chance of a third score.

The man with the whistle bizarrely claimed he had blown because he thought several of our boys eating over-priced pizza while sitting on the sidelines had been part of a ruck and had strayed offside.

If only he’d gone to Thompsons Opticians - because there was clearly something wrong with his spectacles.

After the “Pizzagate” moment the game became a rough and tumble affair, powerhouse Joe Broughton leaving one Novos player flat on his back for a full five minutes after a crunching encounter.

But with the scores level at 2-2, that referee struck again, deciding to abandon the game before full time because he was fed up with back chat from players on both sides.

In a post match chat with the official Reece Gaines was put on the Festival naughty step as our most vocal offender.

With matches coming thick and fast it was Alnwick 2 against Percy Park 2 next. This time it was Coach Leadbitter causing the controversy. He was refereeing and denied Drew Thompson what seemed a good try.

Percy Park played rough house tactics with persistent high tackles.

Some were so bad, like the one on Dan Osborne, the chubby Police Community Support Officer who for some reason was on patrol on the touchlines throughout the morning’s play could legitimately have made an arrest or two for assault.

Percy took the lead, then Harry Paul levelled it for Alnwick with a deft grab and go move after the ball came his way from a scrum.

From then on though Percy Park’s Mr Moustache took control of the game as his much smaller team-mates carried on breaking the rules.

Referee Leadbitter, who to be fair had played in a veterans match on Friday night, rode the Wooler Wheel on Saturday morning and played for Morpeth Stags in the afternoon struggled to keep up with the pace of the play.

The game finished 3-3, with Lowes and Mark Roberts our other try scorers.

The last match of the day, Alnwick 1’s encounter with Ponteland 1, was a feisty affair, but ultimately turned into a lesson for the lads who will now know they need to think quicker and pass faster if they want to compete at this level.

It was a 4-0 defeat with the opposition making the most of some sloppy defending that was almost as costly as the pitifully small £7 pizzas being sold by the three robbers in the tent in the car park.

Final result: Played 8, drew 3, lost 5. Tries for 11. Tries against 28