Youngsters, coaches, parents and supporters representing clubs from all over England and Scotland descended on the Waterloo Road ground on Saturday and Sunday to play knock-out tournament rugby. Despite the gloomy forecast the weather held and there was even some sunshine for large crowd to bask in.

And what a spectacle they were treated to with the competition arranged in ten age groups from under 7 up to under 16 playing on six pitches. The games were by and large hard but fair, the logistics superbly organised by Director of Youth Rugby Mike Dale and his referees and marshals. There was a bit of a panic on Sunday morning when some teams seemingly disappeared off the radar following an energetic night, or two at Pontins, but Mike counted them out and in good military fashion counted them all back in again.

One of the great features was the teams smartly decked out in an array of multi-coloured shirts in clubs traditional and touring colours, and its fair to say that each club really did look the business. Sadly there was no trophy for the smartest team, which would have been impossible to call, but each age group team coach in the spirit of the ethos of the occasion nominated a Fair Play award. Southport were nominated in five of the age groups which is not just to the credit of the boys and girls representing the club at under 7,8,9,10, and 16, levels, but as an appreciation of the welcome the clubs received across the board and of the organisation involved.

The winners, runners up and third place in each age group tells its own story in terms of how attractive the Kukri Festival has become not just from far afield but just as importantly local representation too:

Age Group Winner Runners Up Third place
Under 7 Southport A Sefton Waterloo
Under 8 Waterloo Sefton Southport A
Under 9 Sefton Waterloo Orrell
Under 10 Waterloo Sefton Southport
Under 11 Southport Waterloo East Kilbride
Under 12 Market Harborough Southport Melrose
Under 13 Waterloo Ikeston A Old Salteians
Under 14 Doncaster Selby Cheltenham
Under 15 Ilkley Waterloo Leamington
Under 16 Waterloo Ormskirk Rotherham

Stand out performances for Southport were the under 7 and under 11 sides, both coming up trumps against strong local opposition in Sefton and Waterloo. In the under 11 side Dan Hyde stood out with a well taken try finishing off excellent team work, with Harry Morris also to the fore in a superb 2-0 win in the final. All three sides were well represented in the youngest age groups but good to see one of the great names in NW rugby union Orrell up there too.

Southport under 12 were unlucky to lose narrowly in the final to Market Harborough, but a measure of their performance is that no team in the Leicester Tigers catchment area will be mugs. Talking of which the under 16 winners Waterloo from down the track were captained to victory by Tigers academy bound Charlie Beckett, with local boy Harry Topping (son of one of the Southport board sponsors) also making his mark in beating Ormskirk.

Yorkshire were well represented in the honours too, with several local bragging rights to be sorted, and Scotland too with East Kilbride and Melrose taking some silverware back over Hadrian’s Wall. It was a pleasure to welcome Doddy Weir the former Scotland and British Lions lock, resplendent in his Melrose club coloured yellow and black tartan trews, I can tell you!

Doddy also helped with some sponsorship care of Dovehaven Care Homes to help underwrite the cost of the staging the event, likewise E C Harris through Mark Howard, and main sponsor Kukri through Phil Morris.

The festival also managed to conjure up some pure nolstalgia. By a quirk of fate one of the visitors was the under 15 XV side from the famous Tyneside club Percy Park who, like Southport, were formed in 1872! The visitors narrowly won a hard fought game 7-0, and afterwards the players from both sides captured the symbolism of the moment in having a joint photo-shoot and exchanging a shield and tie. Wonderful stuff. Perhaps Southport can organise an 1872 Festival to involve the other thirteen English clubs also formed that year (see Club Trivia), complete with guests of honour to suit the occasion.

Guest of honour on Sunday afternoon was the Sale Sharks, England and British Lion prop forward Andrew Sheridan who presented the trophies and took in the action on the pitches taking time to have his photograph taken and chat with all and sundry, including the local St John Ambulance team who as ever were unselfishly on hand to deal with bumps and bruises. Andrew was there to watch the under 6's going through the motions for the very first time, recounting his early days when he started in the Junior set up at Old Elthamians in S E London.

Who knows, with the growing momentum in the Southport set up, there may well be a few in there to follow Andrew, and Doddy on the path to greatness!

As ever the rugby club would like to thank all the volunteers, emergency services and local residents in helping contribute to the success of yet another fantastic event.