All eyes were on John Charles Stadium last Saturday as the finals of the Barla Yorkshire Cup were played. Batley started strong with strong running from Bradley Hyett & Louis Tarpey working Batley down field. A planned move from dynamic hooker Thomas Fisher put captain Bailey Aldridge through a gap in the Kippax defence, which would have made the perfect start only for him to be dragged down close to the line. Batley continued to press the Kippax line with moves from Dylan Waterworth helping Kaiden Smith, Lewis Hartley & Joshua Stones drive hard at the try line. A breakaway try out wide by Kippax dealt a hammer to the Boys & the great following supporters. After missing the conversion Kippax quickly doubled their lead with an almost indentical try minutes later, making it 0-8. The match was end to end with Lewis Hartley & Joshua Rhodes making great ground in the forward battle which ensued. After Jordan North, Fisher & Aldridge forced the Kippax attacker into touch, Fisher made the breakthrough with a great timed ball to Levi Edwards to run half the length of the field to score under the post. With both sides not wanting to give anything away & some excellent tackling from Rhodes, Wilson Martin & Aldridge the score stayed 4-8 at half time.

Shortly after the kick off to the second half a Batley player was bundled into touch, Wilson Martin was again solid at the back bringing the ball away to make ground up field, leading to Fisher again finding Edwards out wide to race clear of the Kippax defence to score under the post, Batley again failing to add the conversion. With Kippax downbeat, Edwards quickly brought up his hat trick, with hands down the line to break the split defenders, Aldridge adding the two from in front of the posts. Kippax then turned up the heat with two quick tries in the corner, the second of which looked questionable from the Boys protests to the referee, Kippax kick a conversion making it 14-18. From the kick off Kippax pressured the Boys line, but great work from winger Jordan North & Louis Gibbons cleaned up the kick chases. With minutes left Fisher finding Aldridge who dummies to Edwards to race clear, attracting the cover defender to find Edwards in support to make his tally 4 for the day (earning him the MOM award) Aldridge added the 2 to make it 20-18. Batley just needed to hold on to take the win. With only 14 players hearts were in mouths in the stands, with celebration erupting on the full time whistle.
Batley Boys U12s would like to thank all the fantastic supporters who came to cheer them on.