2003 A Year of Highs
and some mid season Lows!

Haven Tops

On Tuesday, September 30th 2003 Haven were voted Community Club of the Year by the RL at the National League Awards Dinner. Onwards and Upwards!



Hornets just escape a Stinging

Backed by superb fans support (including the Got Your Number Duo....) Haven had the home side staring at defeat ..but they were saved by the hooter...Full details....

Mike Mac

Play-offs here we come!

Haven 68 (30-6) 12 Dewsbury...match details..&..Pix

Congrats Tom..
Whitehaven RLFC would like to congratulate Tom Morley on his tremendous achievement in winning the Televised Junior Eurovision Song contest on Saturday. Tom kicked off our pre-match entertainment earlier this year and he certainly did very well then ,a smashing young man who had the crowd captivated
He was superb on TV and did his family and the area proud .Well done from all at Whitehaven RLFC,and all the very best in the final in November

Testimonial
Three Whitehaven players - David Seeds, Lee Kiddie and Graeme Morton - will share a testimonial year, now confirmed by the Rugby League.
First event is planned for September 27 and in a year's time the trio plan to donate a quarter of the money raised to a trust fund for community rugby.
All three are in the current Whitehaven squad and have a committee in place to run regular events for them.

Donny Draw
The media report an away draw...Dons 34-34 Haven ...Tries from Lebbon, Seeds, Wood, Hill & Chambers.
Conversions: Kirkbride

A Bit Better Lads
Haven 24 (16-10) 20 Oldham
Match Pictures..
August 24 2003
The home crowd was thin at 1132, which was understandable after last week's showing. However Haven showed more determination and the new pack seemed to have the centre of the field under control. However it was a different story on wings as Oldham perfected passing after they had been tackled to throw the home defences into confusion.
Paul Oneill was generously given his second by Leroy Joe and could have been given a hat trick to give the home fans a break from the stress of the last ten minutes as Oldham would not cave in.
Steve Woods who enjoyed a good game generated the opening penalty kick from Kirkbride. A high tackle by a sparkie Lester gave the visitors possession and their first opportunity to see Johnson go over in the corner.
Haven replied with good pressure and Lester was able to drive under to score. Kirkbride in good kicking form converted. O'Neill then made his first with kirkbride converting a long kick. Broadbent, who was chosen as Man of the Match, made a great tackle to halt what looked like a certain try for Oldham, but soon after Haven defences slipped and Doran scored for the visitors. Morton who was part of the winning combination in the centre then made a superb drive and won a penalty after he could only be stopped by a rogue Oldham tackle. Kirkbride kicked the resulting penalty.
In the second half Haven started to crank up the volume with that man David Seeds flying in on the wing to touchdown after some good teamwork. Leroy Joe having found open spec clear to the line generously passed out to O'Neill for his second. Then came the defensive errors including several Haven players busily bundling off an Oldham player they mistakenly thought still had the ball. Meanwhile the visitors touched down and with a conversion left the Haven fans to sweat out the last five minutes.
Featherstone Shocker

Lets not pull any punches here, while I really felt for the team after last weeks defeat at Batley, no one should have any sympathy at all regarding yesterday's feckless offering at Post Office Road .
"A devastating result" and " a totally unacceptable performance from the team " . Coach McCormack's frank assessment of yet another away day disaster .

This was a game were you knew early doors that it was going to be a bad day at the office. Our main playmakers toiled but without any real spark and the rest of the team,well they made a succession of silly schoolboy errors. Really we did well to go in at the half only 16-2 down, though Paul O'Neill looked to have scored just before the break only for the ref to rule no try .
After that it just got embarrasing as the home side run amock , taking advantage of some pretty poor tackling . Late tries from Kirkbride and Morton didn't even put a modicum of respectabilty on what was a dire performance .

No referees to pin the blame on this week, the buck stops with the players and coaches. The team took all the compliments earlier on this year they now have to have a long hard look at themselves and attempt to put things right , easier said than done ! The crazy thing is that with three games remaining we still have every chance of making the play offs,but it's going to need a big turn around in performance to achieve that .

CAN YOU DO IT LADS ? I think you can !!!!! But It really is over to you for the next fortnight, only you can sort it now !!
Batley

The rot continues despite brave work by O'Neill again.
BATLEY 26-16 HAVEN

Whitehaven left Mount Pleasant after this game their third defeat in a row , feeling very annoyed at the way a deserved victory was denied them by one of the poorest refereeing decisions seen in a long time

This was a game both teams needed to win and true to form the advantage of the Mount pleasant slope was the governing factor as the game unfolded . Haven had the advantage of the slope in the first half and dominated the game territorially tries came from Leroy Joe and Steven Kirkbride who also kicked two goals , as we took a 12-2 interval lead . But would this be enough against a useful looking home team who would be running with the slope in the second half .

As expected the bulldogs got on top and ran in three converted tries in the first 20 minutes of the second half . Just when you thought the Haven were losing it we put together two good sets and Paul ONeill went over unopposed on the wide left . Batley 20 Haven 16 .

With maybe only 5 minutes remaining the game then turned on a very poor decision from Referee Pete Taberner. A high bomb from the Haven was not defused by the home full back and from nowhere Paul ONeill collected the fumble and touched down under the posts . Mr Tabenener did not award the score but spoke to his touch judge and to the fury of Haven players officials and supporters the try was disallowed for offside .

In the ensuing furore the Home side marched down the field and scored a further converted try to seal the game .

A real sickener this for the Haven who despite not playing well did enough to win this game only for the outcome to be ultimately decided by the Referee and touch judges . A close inspection of the video afterwards confirmed that Paul ONeill ran from an ONSIDE position to collect the fumble and with no other Haven player in the frame the offside decision looks to be totally ridiculous!!!!!!

Having said that the result will not alter and Haven now have to pick themselves up for the remaining four games which on todays gutsy display can be won , providing they can show the same determination and application and if the match officials give them a fair crack .
Match report on Batley website.....

Rochdale Defeat
Defeat again, this time against Rochdale...

Not a Sonny Day for Haven!
Haven8 (2-4)20 Leigh

Craig Walsh is tackled. Starting only his second comeback game, Craig is sidelined again with a hamstring injury. Mike Mac

Despite Seedsy going through the pain barrier for Haven the pace of Leigh was too much for Haven. Holt started with promise with the penalty goal that for so long was the solitary result for the home side. Leigh opened up their scoring through a kick from the left wing across to Munroe who must, by the laws of Mathematics have been off side. But the try was allowed unlike another Leigh breakthru which was disallowed for a double movement.
Lester seemed tired when they came out for the second half and Fats, who had had an excellent first half started dropping vital passes. As Leigh started to dominate through players like Turley and Sonny Nikel tensions blew and no 9 for Leigh and Leroy Joe were both shown yellow cards. Just as disappointed home fans made for the door Howard Hill powered over and Holt converted to wipe away that embarrassing 2 from the scoreboard.

Action pictures

Man of Match Broadbent.

Gate 1750

Walsh Hat Trick

Dewsbury Rams 18 18 Whitehaven
Haven confirmed themselves as National league Draw specialists with this result their 4 th draw of the campaign .

They got off to the best posssible start when Craig Walsh scored in the first minute , Darren Holt added the extras and we were 6 nil ahead Somehow we never quite took the advantage on from there , and though Craig Walsh added two more trys before half time we allowed a rather mediocre home team to rattle up a try and three goals to leave us with a slender lead at the break .

After the interval we made plenty of opening but just couldnt finish . Dewsbury pulled to within 2 points with another penalty , though it seemed Graham Mortons try with 10 minutes remaining made it 18-12 , maybe that would see us through to a narrow victory. Not to be as the Rams scored a late converted try to share the points.

Great to see Craig Walsh back to somewhere near his best , he really is a talent. Overall though it has to be a disappointing results ,Dewsbury had not won a game since Easter Monday ,though Steve McCormack stated afterwards that "it was a point gained". We did outscore them 4 trys to 2 and had enough of the game to win :maybe if Darren Holt had his kicking boots with him it would have been a differant story . Next weeks its Leigh at the Recre and another big game which will have to see us performing better than today ,

Tries: Walsh (3) Morton
Conversions: Holt

From
Broadbent, Wallace, Walsh, Hill , Fraser, Joe , Holt , Fatialofa,Lester,McKinney, Whitehead , Miller , Purdham
Subs ; Kikbride ,Woods, Vaughan, Cunningham
Spotland Blues
Rochdale 43 (25-12) 26 Haven
HAVEN: Broadbent, Wood, Seeds, Hill, Wallace, Joe, Holt, Vaughan, Lester, Fatialofa, Miller, Morton, Purdham. Subs: Kiddie, Jackson, Walsh, Whitehead
HORNETS: Owen, Nanyn, Bunyan, Roper, Billy, Bowker, Watson, Southern, Pachniuk, Price, Larder, Smith, Ball. Subs: Hamilton, Leigh, Irwin, Long

Haven tries: Seeds 2, Broadbent, Joe, Miller. Goals: Holt 3

Hornets tries: Nanyn 2, Bowker 2, Ball, Long, Leigh, Southern

Goals: Nanyn 5, Ball, one drop-goal

Att: 800 Referee: Ben Thaler

Well Done! Haven back on Track
Salford 26 -26 Haven

Haven turned in arguably their best performance of the season to gain a well deserved point at table topping Salford City Reds.

With coach Steve McCormack returning his old club ,and last weeks home reverse against Doncaster still fresh in the memory the Haven had lots of points to prove . Leroy Joe was back in after injury, as was Spencer Miller and both played their part in this sterling performance .

In hot summner weather both teams served up a game that was a great advert for NL 1 , there was never more than one score in the game ,

We took the lead early doors with a Holt penalty while a good Spencer Miller try again converted put our marker down to the Salford team . The home side answered in a very positive manner and ran in three trys in the middle of the first period : would they overun our lads ? Not on your life , Haven dug deep and came back with a Mike Whitehead try on 33 minutes we went in at the break 16-14 and right back in the game

The second half was nip and tuck , the home team edged further ahead , Leroy Joes try tying the score at 20 points all .Then with 10 minutes remaining Salford regained the lead with a converted try . A grandstand finish with 4 minutes left Never say die Haven came back yet again .Salford couldn't defuse a Haven bomb the ball was fed to Neil Fraser to score wide out and with Darren Holt kicking a touchline conversion the game ended all square at 26 all and the Haven sent their travelling fans home in good spirits

The team rose to the task magnificently today against a team looking strong favourites to be playing Super League next year .The half backs played well and the forwards worked tirelessly , none more so that Aaron Lester who had his best game for some time in a man of the match performance . So Rochdale next , and two points ? DF

Tries from: Morton, Whitehead, Joe, Frazer
Conversions: Holt

Arriva Cup Semi
Leigh 39-18 Haven

Try scorers for Haven: Whitehead Morton Broadbent
Conversions: Holt
Action from the game...

In Control...Again
Haven 46- Featherstone 6
June 1 2003
Thanks to tries from Leroy Joe (3), David Seeds (2) Hill (2) and Ryan Campbell... Holt kicking on form.

In Control
Haven 31 (10-6) 12 Batley
May 25 2003
MORE Pix from the action
A crowd of 1,430 enjoyed a sunny afternoon in which Haven were always the dominant part of the equation.

The half-time score should have shown more for the home side's steady domination. Leroy Joe opened the scoring and saw his try converted by Holt. Then the Big Fella Howard Hill made Haven's second. Lester had a try disallowed for a double movement. Just seconds before the half-time hooter Batley had one of their rare flashes of inspiration as three Haven defenders let Mark Sibson sprint half the length of the pitch.Haven were always in the visitor's half of the pitch but seemed unable to capitalise.They intitially had to make do with a penalty from Holt and drop goal from Joe until Batley cracked Steve Woods is a try scoring dynamo at the moment and he took a high kick just under the Kells End sticks to make it 17-6. Holt converted and soon after Jacko stormed over . Holt again converted. Campbell got the next which with the conversion gave the home side their finale. Batley's no 15 got a last minutes consolation which was converted. Man of the Match was Darren Holt.

Action from the early 2003 season....