Bareback Riders continue winning streak

The Bareback Riders continued at East London RFC where they left off at Broadstreet, winning their second successive Belief NTS Cup title, and their third of the season so far.

After a 100 percent record in the pool stages, Bareback Riders went on to beat Manchester Chargers, London Galaxy and Canterbury Cougars en route to the Cup title. It was the Cougars’ first Cup final appearance of the season, and they went home with plenty of credit from the 3-5 defeat to Bareback Riders.

London Scorpions, who have been Bareback Riders’ main rivals this season, suffered a surprise exit from the Cup competition at the quarter final stages, before losing to Cambridge Hornets in the Plate semi-finals.

However the Hornets could not capitalise in the Plate final, going down 1-5 to Wigan Touch Warriors.

CSSC swept the board in the other Belief NTS competitions, with Phantoms winning the Bowl and Shadows the Shield.

MVPs were Mike Short and Hannah Chrisp.

The Belief NTS might have had one dominant team, but the SPORTTAPE CTS had its fourth different Cup champion of 2017, with Wigan Touch Warriors taking home the silverware.

A perfect record in the pool stages put the Warriors into the knockouts, where they overcame Percy Park Pirates in the quarter final, and then two other previous 2017 Cup winners, Bournemouth Titans and Crewe and Nantwich Blaze, in the semi-final and final respectively.

The Pirates did make it to the Plate final, where they narrowly lost 3-4 to Thames Valley Vikings, who took home their second Plate of the season.

Elsewhere in the SPORTTAPE CTS Halton Storm lifted the Bowl and Chester Cheetahs the Shield, with Sam Pryor and Georgie Perris-Redding being named the MVPs.

A special mention, too, to CSSC Spirits, the club’s STEEDEN DTS team, who stepped in at the last minute and made it all the way to the Cup semi-finals to finish in joint third place.

Kathy van de Rijt was named the Most Valuable Referee.

Pic (c) Simon Robinson