On a bright, hot and sunny Saturday morning over 100 junior Rugby League players from five development clubs assembled on Hare Lane, home of Chester RUFC, for the first ever Chester Gladiators Junior Rugby League Festival.

The Gladiators fielded two teams at U12s (a mixture of U11 and U12 juniors) and U14 (a mixture of U13 and U14 juniors).

Under 12s

The U12s continued their fine run of form this season, winning 2 of their 3 games on the day.

First up was a game against old foes Liverpool Lions which was comfortably won by the Gladiators. Next came the Liverpool Storm who were put to the sword with ruthless efficiency by the home team. The final fixture in the U12s pool saw the two unbeaten sides, the Gladiators and the Cheshire Cats from Lymm, lock horns. It was the Cats who came out on top in this game with the deciding factor being the greater number of 12 year olds in their squad. However, the Cats are a fine team playing nice slick attacking rugby backed up with a solid defence.

The Gladiators can be proud of their efforts once again and the squad continues to develop under the watchful eye of coach Adam Turner. Next up for the U12s is a visit to Manchester on the 17th July for another junior festival and another crack at the Cheshire Cats.

Squad: Matty Allen, James Ashcroft, Jack Bottomley, Joshua Field Baines, Ricky Davies, Joe Ives, Ben Jones, Joe Maddocks, Will Menzies, Armani Roberts, Ryan Turner (Captain), Thomas Woods and Brandon Young

Under 14s

This squad of U13 and U14 juniors continue to develop at a pace and this was so evident in their two fixtures last Saturday.

First up was a clash against Liverpool Buccaneers, who had narrowly defeated the Gladiators a few weeks ago. There was to be no repeat this time as the Gladiators ran out victors by 4 tries to 1 in another physical end to end encounter. The final pool game saw the Gladiator take on Liverpool Lions as the two unbeaten teams on the day clashed. This was a real hard nosed physical game of Rugby League with the no nonsense Lions forward based game in stark contrast to the Gladiators more skilled approach. In a tight game the Gladiators deservedly edged home 5 tries to 4 against a team containing several players with North West Counties experience.

“The boys were brilliant today and were tough and aggressive in defence and very slick on attack,” said coach Allen Jones.

“However, there is still lots to work on and that starts on Monday evening.”

Squad: Thomas Chong, Aled Davies, Rob Dessington, Max Himbury, Matty Joyce, Curtis Ledisham, Rob Leighton, Ian Menzies, Luke O’Neil, George Ryder, Lewis Tucker (Captain) and Edward Wilkinson

Junior coaches Adam Turner and Allen Jones wish to pass on their sincerest thanks to all parents and families for their support on the day.

Special thanks go to April for organising the raffle, Lyndsey in the kitchen, Bill “The Naked Chef” Menzies for a memorable buffet and Chris Young, Martin Tucker, Gareth Jones and Gareth Davies for helping out with the juniors. We also wish to thank the lovely Danielle and her staff at Chester RUFC.

All of your help and support was invaluable on a great day for Chester Gladiators. Clubs visiting on the day were Liverpool Buccaneers, Liverpool Lions, Liverpool Storm and Cheshire Cats.

Thank you to all players, coaches, family and friends from these clubs for helping to make it a successful festival.