Hinckley Under 12's Loughborough Festival CHAMPIONS

Hinckley Under 12's Sponsored by Apollo Carpets travelled to Loughborough, in awful wet and cold conditions to compete in their Festival.

The opening match of the Loughborough Festival saw Hinckley up against Syston, and in tough slippery conditions it was Hinckley who got off to the perfect start with a score from Davey, an evenly matched contest followed with both sides failing to break each others defence, the wet boggy conditions causing both teams difficulty resulting in numerous handling errors, but Hinckley managed to hold on to their lead at half time. With a half time team talk on how to combat Syston continuously being off side, Hinckley deployed the kicking tactic, this paid off straight away when Nixon kicked to the corner, and the resulting pressure caused panic within the Syston backs, who threw a wild pass for Nixon himself to intercept and run in an excellent score.Syston replied with two quick scores of their own to end the match Hinckley 10pts Syston 10pts.

Hinckley's next match saw them up against Leicester Forest, and with the wet conditions worsening and the pitches cutting up badly, once again saw numerous handling errors, both teams battled hard in the conditions, Long for Hinckley showed great grit and determination but was unable to break the Forest defence, Leicester Forest were excellent at the breakdown turning ball over on numerous occasions, but Hinckley's defence held strong resulting in a 0 - 0 score line at full time.

Melton next for Hinckley, and once again conditions were awful, although it had stopped raining at this point and feeling a little warmer, the damage to the pitch had already been done, this didn't phase the Hinckley pack who were dominant from the start, excellent hands from, Webb,Nixon,Sharkey,Blackman and finally Long released Handford in for the first try, scores followed by Sharkey, Wass, Inman, and Long ended an excellent half and lead of 25pts to 0pts. The second half was short lived as Hinckley's forward pack drove on deep inside the Melton half, and when Ellershaw nipped in to score, the match ended with the six score lead rule. Hinckley 30pts Melton 0pts.

Hinckley's fourth match of the day should of been against Derby, but with the Derby pack with nothing to play for, decided to pull out the tournament and hand Hinckley the points.

The final match of the day saw Hinckley up against the hosts, who'd had the pleasure of playing all their matches and were also unbeaten with three wins, this meant with Hinckley only being rewarded the points from the Derby game, try difference was in Loughborough's favour. But only a win was on Hinckley's minds, and a titanic battle of the forwards followed in what know was an absolute mud bath, but neither side managed to score ending the first half, Hinckley 0pts Loughborough 0pts.
The second half once again saw both teams giving nothing away, great defence from Nixon, Wass, Webb, and tenacious running once again from Long, finally paid off when Sharkey broke through to score, ending the match Hinckley 5pts Loughborough 0pts.

A nail biting wait followed with both teams on 6pts, and try difference also the same off +7, it was Hinckley who were crowned Champions with scoring 9 tries to Loughborough's 8, this was an excellent achievement from the Hinckley lads who only had tries counting from three games opposed to Loughborough's four, so a well deserved Festival win for the Hinckley pack.