ST JOSEPH’S second string are celebrating being crowned the James Joseph Conlan Memorial Trophy champions.
The men from Fartown battled their way to a hard-fought 32-26 triumph over Emley Moor A in the final at Emley’s Welfare Ground.
Once again, the competition’s handicappers got their marks spot-on, with Pennine League Division VII side Moor handed an eight-point start over their Division VI rivals.
And that helped lead to a closely-fought contest from start to finish, with St Joseph’s Sam Hendrick – who collected the man-of-the-match award, sponsored by John and Sue Taylor – proving the difference between the two teams.
Although club Under 18s graduate Hendrick was on hand to land four goals, it was the full-back’s all-round play that made all the difference in the world.
But it was Moor who were the first to strike, courtesy of a Michael Butcher try, as Emley opened up an early 12-0 lead.
That proved to be St Joseph’s wake-up, however, and by half-time they had opened up an 18-14 interval advantage.
Mike Silver opened the scoring, with Steven O’Keefe and Martin Mosse following up before John Roebuck landed a penalty just before the break to leave the contest perfectly poised.
But at the start of the second half, St Joseph’s turned the screw to take the game out of their opponents’ reach.
Two tries from Sam Coyne and an effort from Craig Lee extended Joe’s advantage to 32-14 before Moor grabbed two late consolation tries through Butcher and Mathew Baron.
As well as being an excellent contest, it was also very well refereed by 18-year-old Sam Ansell, while the victory meant the St Joseph’s club claimed their second trophy in a fortnight after the first team’s Holliday Cup final triumph over Newsome Panthers.
