Road to Wembley – Round Three

Road to Wembley – Round Three

The third round of the Challenge Cup presented me with my longest trip to a match this year.  By far the longest as it would mean my mileage would stretch to double figures!  Short trips down the road to Leigh and Wigan in the first two rounds would be followed by a visit to York.

Having visited the city in the past, and because York is a nice place, the other half convinced me that we should make a weekend of it and stay over after the game.  So, as in the previous rounds, she provided me with much needed company.  Thankfully, as I’m a Cumbrian lad by birth and her being a Yorkshire lass there were no palpitations or nose bleeds when crossing the Pennines from our home in Lancashire.

Whereas this would be York City Knight’s first game in this season’s Challenge Cup, their opponents and victors from the previous round, Egremont Rangers, were taking part in their third game of the competition having beaten The Army and Wigan St Patricks on their way to this tie at the famous Bootham Crescent.

Having also followed football for a number of years prior to working in rugby league I have never actually visited Bootham Crescent so was particularly excited about this one.  As we walked from our b&b to the ground, we passed the place where we’d stayed last time we were in York and were surprised to see how close to the ground we had been; by close I mean all but 100 yards – small world!

As we arrived at the ground the first thing I thought of was how much it reminded me of Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park ground (I’d visited their ground when working for AFC Fylde a few years ago in the FA Cup first round).  I loved the way Bootham Crescent looked so traditional and how it was squeezed right in the middle of a residential area - a proper traditional football ground.

I paid £1 for my “programme” (which unfortunately was just a poster folded into quarters!) as I walked in and eventually convinced my wife that we could pay our entrance fee at the turnstiles and didn’t need to pay for a ticket at the booth.  I must say at this point that having not come to many of the games past the first two rounds with me last year, she was utterly shocked when I confirmed that the admittance charge would be as high as £10.  I therefore spent some time explaining that it was probably a competition rule that they charge at least £10, and not the £2.50 she had become accustomed to, as York City Knights are a semi-pro club in League 1.  Then again, she is from Yorkshire!

We had arrived in plenty of time so were able to take park our bums on some decent seats near half way and had time to get ourselves a hot drink.  In the pre-match build up the enthusiastic stadium announcer declared that York City Knight’s club mascot, ‘Norris the Knight’, would be walking around and available for photos but I couldn’t persuade the wife to take up the offer – I don’t know why?

As is often the case with teams outside Super League who share their grounds with the town’s respective football clubs, it was only one side that was open but as we got nearer to kick off, and with Egremont’s healthy following from Cumbria here again, there was a decent attendance within the main stand by the time the match got underway.

The game eventually got underway and, after a brief foray into the York final 20 early on, Egremont were run ragged and had conceded three tries within the first 15 minutes.  Normally, that would have ended the match as a contest but deep down I thought that becuase Harry Tyson-Wilson hadn’t converted any of them an upset could still be on the cards if Egremont could get their heads together.

They did wake up and eventually managed to string some sets together and, even though York had scored again, they get a much deserved try of their own inside the last ten minutes of the half.  But, just like ‘HTW’ as he was affectionately known by the announcer, Egremont’s kicker Matt Bewsher also seemed to have left his kicking boots at home and missed his conversion.  So the score was 16-4 as the half came to a close.

Sometimes, it is said that getting the first try of the second half can often be crucial and today it was as, within three minutes of the restart, York were in again and that’s when Cumbrian heads dropped and the game became nothing short of silly.

A farce would also be another word to describe it.  It took another two tries for ‘HTW’ to score his first conversion at his seventh attempt (and that was from right in front of the posts!) which brought the biggest cheer of the afternoon.  From then on it was just chaos on and off the pitch!

It started with Egremont’s captain being sin-binned with around 20 minutes to go, much to the delight of the York fans who had been berating him throughout the whole game regarding his tactics and gamesmanship to try and win his side penalties.  Two minutes later, they had a second player sin-binned which handed York the opportunity for an eight-point try.  But, guess what?  ‘HTW’ missed the first kick and opted to take the penalty from right in front of the sticks.

And not long after that Egremont had a man sent off which left them with just 10 men on the pitch for three or four minutes.  The air was literally blue with swearing and abuse at the player as he walked off smiling to the crowd and winding them up.  I joked at one point to my wife that I may need to put the hood of my coat up to protect the back of my head from the spit that was coming from the bloke sat directly behind me who sounded like he was about to burst a good number of blood vessels with the abuse he was sending to the player and his Egremont teammates.

To quote one of the less colourful comments from said gentleman apparently “bloody Cumbrians are all the same” – I didn’t dare turn round to tell him where I was from!

Neither was the referee safe from the colourful abuse and received plenty of grief from the crowd as, I must admit that I was thinking the same, he seemed to be losing control of the players and having to consult with his touch judge to confirm an awful lot of his decisions.

Eventually the game was won comfortably as York registered 11 tries to Egremont’s two for a final score of 48-8.  I can’t say I wasn’t pleased that the game was finally over as if it went on in the same vain any longer it could have really boiled over.

At this point I will admit that my wife’s man of the match was the York winger Dee Foggin-Johnston purely down to his name, which caused her to miss-hear what the announcer had said when his first try was announced and she thought that he wasn’t particularly liked!

I now nervously look forward to finding out who York are drawn against in Round Four.

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