MAYFIELD Under 10s travelled to play in the Saddleworth Tournament at weekend and battled four local teams in a round robin competition amid heavy showers.

The round robin stage kicked off with a game against Oldham St Anne’s – who had beaten Mayfield in the regular season – but early pressure saw Mayfield pin Oldham back with some strong tackling and determined running.

Mayfield crossed early, but their effort was disallowed for a foot in touch. Nevertheless, the incident seemed to lift team spirits even though Oldham scored on the following sets before Dean Stanton went over for his first try of the day.

Despite some hard tackling and great work at dummy half from Corey O’Rourke, Oldham scored a couple more tries and went on to win 16-4.

Next up was New Spring Lions who proved to be a strong test for Mayfield. Good work from Kyle Hilton put Dean Stanton in for a couple of tries in either half and elusive wing play from Daniel Brown and Jack Kenyon edged the game in Mayfield’s favour, 12-4.

West Houghton Lions followed and forward Josh Kay-Spencer cut through their defence on a number of occasions, resulting in him scoring an early try.

Strong play from Julian Capper and a quick turn of pace from Matthew Marcantonates allowed the Mayfield backs some room in attack to provide several try-scoring opportunities and they ran out winners 8-4.

Saddleworth Rangers were the next opponents in a must-win game that would see the winners progress to the final against Oldham St Annes.

Hopes were high among the Mayfield players. Early nerves were forgotten by the players as strong running and tackling from Eliot Scanlon-Wells set up a great foothold in the game. Kyle Hilton was quick to spot a hole and put Josh Kay-Spencer through a gap and he raced 40 metres to score the opening try.

Jordan Strand, who had been a danger all day, found space in the centre of the field and finished his run with a try in the corner to give a little daylight between the two.

The game was put to bed midway through the second half when Josh Kay-Spencer went over for his second try of the game, giving Mayfield a 12-4 victory and a re-match with Oldham in the final.

Talk of celebration was put on hold – Mayfield knew this was going to be a hard encounter and coming so quickly after the semi-final clash it was going to call on all their energy and desire.

A hard encounter saw the teams complete their sets with both working hard in defence until Jordan Strand fed Josh Kay-Spencer with a sublime pass to put him over the try line as Mayfield snatched a deserved lead which was held until the half time hooter.

In the second half, Mayfield started brightly with strong running from Eliot Scanlon-Wells and Kyle Hilton finding gaps in the Oldham defence, but to no joy.

With the final hooter approaching, Oldham found space on the wing and went over for the equalising try which was very much against the run of play.

Mayfield hearts were broken when, with only a minute to go, Oldham worked the ball from centre field out to the wing and scored in the corner to give them a 8-4 lead. Mayfield were unable to turn things around despite their best efforts in the closing stages – they were held up on the line – and lost out 8-4.

Coach Chris Hilton said: "The lads showed some great skills and determination in this tournament and it shows how they have developed through the season.

"With a good pre-season I feel we will play even better next year and hopefully come back to the Saddleworth Tournament in 2010 and come away as winners."