What a weekend!

Lancaster Rugby League at last got off the mark on Saturday with a convincing victory over fellow conference strugglers Cambridge Eagles in the International York 9s, lending credence to the suggestion that the North West league does indeed have the highest playing standards of all of the Totalrl.com summer conference.

The Scottish champions Edinburgh have been caning sides in their league all year, and we found them a tough proposition to deal with, losing comprehensively to them. Next up on the very cosmopolitan agenda were FC Lezignan, who welcomed back into their ranks French rugby star Laurent Ferreres.

Ferreres, who was awarded the Rugby League World player of the tournament award in last year's tournament, but switched to play rugby union shortly after, has turned his back on the fifteen-man code to play with FC Lezignan-Corbieres in the now world famous tournament.

Ferreres led the ancient club, who are currently enjoying a successful centenary season, reaching the semi-finals of the French Championship and the quarterfinals of the Lord Derby Cup, to the final of the Fairfax Cup, only to miss out narrowly to London Koogas.

Taking on a club of such stature was a daunting task although Lancaster performed creditably; and had them on the rack on a number of occasions.

Highlight of the game for Lancaster was Gavin Winder putting the step on his opposition winger and making a break down the right flank. At the end of the game we considered ourselves unlucky not to have scored at least two tries.

Physically we matched the French side, unfortunately we could not match their Gallic flair and they thoroughly deserved their victory, going onto to win the tournament in impressive style.

Next up were Cambridge, who were accounted for comfortably with a confidence building 18 pts to 6 victory.

The following morning the South Asia Bulls formed our opposition, a side led by former Super League star Ikram Butt. Ikram may have lost a little pace since his Super League days, but was classy enough to score against us, and lead his side to victory.

The victory over Cambridge, and creditable performances against Edinburgh, FC Lezignan and the South Asia Bulls was enough for Lancaster to be ranked in the top 16, high enough to qualify for the Fairfax Cup.

Ironically, a lower placing would have yielded a more realistic chance of bringing home silverware in the form of the shield competition. However, entry into the Fairfax cup not only gave Lancaster a challenging match against the York Ironsides, but also automatic qualification to the tournament in 2004.

Our match in the knockout Fairfax cup was against the losing finalists and local favourites, the York Ironsides whose aggressive in-your-face defence won them the game, in front of a crowd of over a thousand.

Our Man of the tournament was Prop Dave McVernon, who, to quote one pundit, "just couldn't stop scoring tries". Even the commentator described him as running like a winger!

This weekend, we host Bolton-le-Moors at Giant Axe, (Saturday, 2.30 PM). The corresponding away fixture was lost by just 8 pts in a game where the atrocious weather conditions limited the skill level to about zero. We are hoping for a better game this time round!