Moorends Challenge Cup
Barrow Island 1993/94
Barrow Island 23 v 18 MoorendsFirst Round
Moorends ARLFC made the long trip over to Cumbria to take on National Conference Premier Division side Barrow Island, with an up hill struggle the Moorends club were given little if no chance at all to get a result from the Cumbrians, the first blow was struck before the first whistle when the officials for the game from St Helens rang in to say they had broken down on the way so a new set of local officials were quickly found to take there place.
Moorends soon pressed home taking a quick lead but then slipped behind to two quick tries by Barrow Island, the game was evenly balanced with Moorends starting to gain the upperhand, Howard Roberts had a try dissallowed next to the posts and then Barrow extended their lead with a try coming from a forward pass that the local officials didn`t pick up on, Moorends in the second half fought valiantly out scoring the home side but never making up the ground lost in the first half. Back to top
Askam 1994/95
Askam 10 v 15 MoorendsFirst Round 10/December/1994
Despite a jittery first half which lead to bad-handling by the Moorends team they still went in at half time only 10 - 6 down to the National Conference team.
Moorends opened the scoring after quarter of an hour Roy Rafferty went over and then converted his own try to gain a 6 - 0 advantage, the handling errors allowed Askam to come back and go over in the corner for a unconverted try bringing the score to 4 - 6 in Moorends favour, just before the interval the home side scored between the posts and completed an easy conversion to go in front 10 - 6.
The second half was a different storey with Moorends firing on all cylinders; they completely dominated the next forty minutes with most of the play in the Askam half, something had to go and after 50 minutes Howard Roberts broke through the Cumbrians defence to put the ball down between the posts, Tony Chappell Converted giving the lead back to Moorends 10 - 12, Shortly afterwards Askam were penalised for offside and again Chappell put the ball between the uprights 10 - 14.
Constant pressure on the Cumbrians defence was to no avail as the home side defended desperately, however a drop goal by Tony Chappell put another nail in the Cumbrians coffin to bring the final score to 10 - 15 to Moorends
Man of the Match Ernie Lake
Howard Roberts 1 Try
Roy Rafferty 1 Try 1 Goal
Tony Chappell 2Goals 1 Drop Goal
Man of the Match Ernie Lake Back to top
Thatto Heath 1994/95
Moorends 12 v 10 Thatto HeathSecond Round 31/December/1994
Moorends ARLFC Welcomed Lancashire side Thatto Heath to the Thorne Miners Welfare Gound on New Years Eve for the second round of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup.
Thatto Heath had enjoyed enormous success on the amateur field during this period having contested five Lancashire cup finals and winning three. Last season Thatto had many honours to their credit including the North West Counties Premier League Championship, Champions of Champions trophy winners, St Helens Cup winners, and Lancashire Cup runners up.
Moorends, however are no strangers to success having won the Yorkshire Premier Division for the third time in a row in 1993/94, Doncaster Cup 1993/94 and reached the final of the George Wilkinson Cup Final.
A crowd of well over 1,500 turned up on to the Welfare ground to witness this Roses battle and they didn`t have to wait very long for something to cheer.
The first try came after five minutes when Howard Roberts made a thirty metre break before off-loading to the supporting Roy Rafferty to power between two would be defenders to score just to the left of the posts, Tony Chappell added the extra points 6 - 0, The game flowed from end to end for the next fifteen minutes with Thatto Heath desperate for points, conceding penalties to Moorends under pressure which Tony Chappell used to gain ground, Moorends were completing their sets of six which resulted in the having 80% of the game at this point, however Thatto Heath broke away on the 10th minute with Ray Waring giving them four important poits with the Lancashire sides first try, much to the delight of the Moorends supporters the conversion attempt was fluffed leaving the score 6 - 4 in Moorends favour
After another penalty Tony Chappell extended the Moorends lead to 8 - 4 after his long range kisk went sailing between the uprights, In the 33rd minute it looked like another try was certain when Chappell put in a wonderful kick to the corner stopping 5 metres short of the try line, unfortunately Moorends didn`t capitalise and Thatto Heath went down the field for Norman Barrow to touch down and he converted his own try 8 - 10
Half-Time 8- 10
At the start of the second half Moorends looked the more rejuvenated and made nearly all the running from then on, What looked like a good try by Moorends was disallowed when the referee judged that Howard Roberts was held up over the line.
Moorends fought on and even though the legs started to look weary in the heavy winters mud their hearts drove them on culminating in the winning try 5 minutes from the end after a long period of sustained pressure, Man of the Match Howard Roberts created the try after a trade mark darting run the ball was moved to the right and quick hands by Prop Ernie Lake got Ivor Chowings in at the corner for an unconverted try 12 - 10.
Man of the Match
Howard Roberts
Roy Rafferty 1 Try
Ivor Chowings 1 Try
Tony Chappell 2 Goals Back to top
Whitehaven 1994/95
Whitehaven 64 v 12 MoorendsThird Round 22/January/1995
Moorends` Silk Cut Challenge Cup challenge has ended, The team was beaten on Sunday by the professional rugby league players of Whitehaven. Beaten but not dejected or disgraced the Marauders have had a wonderful cup run and an experience of a life time.
In the first ten minutes Whitehaven opened their scoring with two tries from Vince Gribbon & Michael Pechey both converted by Peter Smith, on fourteen minutes Matt Norman made a break and scored in the corner to bring the score to 12-4, Pechey again left the Moorends defence in tatters scoring out wide for an unconverted try 16-4, Whitehaven then had Hetherington sin-binned and Tony Chapple landed the resulting penalty 16-6, After being awarded yet another penalty Chapple used this to gain ground and then Moorends had their first ever man Ivor Chowings sin-binned for retaliation to the Whitehaven niggling, from this the home side went further ahead with a try by John Routledge 20-6, Moorends battled hard for the rest of the first half with Tony Chapple going over for a try that he also converted bringing the half-time score to 20-12.
Whitehaven came out of the blocks with all guns blazing after getting the biggest roasting at half-time, looking more determined Whitehaven notched up further tries from Clayton Friend 2, Les Quirk 2, David Seeds 2 and 1 for Routledge and 8 conversions by Peter Smith.
Moorends never let their heads go down even under this onslaught they battled bravely and where stopped short of the tryline on several occasions themselves.
Those not in the know may look at the score and think this was a one sided . They would be very mistaken the difference between these two sides is comparable with a Premiership soccer team taking on a local pub team, Whitehaven had two ex Australian Internationals in their side as well as an ex New Zealand captain.
Man of the Match Tony Chapple
Matt Norman 1Try
Tony Chapple 1 Try
Tony Chapple 2 Goals Back to top
Marauders Acclaimed
Moorends A.R.L.F.C. recieved the Thorne Gazette`s Sporting Achievement of the month from Sheffield Eagles & ex Moorends Hooker Steve Parkes.Steve said that the club had achieved & surpassed any local sporting achievement in modern times, firstly to go to a National Conference side and come away with the right result is in itself a reflection of skill and courage, surpassed only by their second round performance against Thatto Heath, rated by BARLA to be the second best side in the country.
So to Whitehaven where the score ended 64-12 in favour of the professionals, for most of the game they matched their professional counter parts and gave Kurt Sorensens team a few scary moments.
Steve Parkes Back to top
