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Menston Win Cup
Damian Ainsworth11 May - 15:28
Glory Glory Menston Rangers
In many ways, I see myself as the Forrest Gump of football reporting. I was there, writing for the Daily Sketch, at the first Wembley FA Cup final in 1923. I was calling the game for World Service Radio when England triumphed in the 1966 World Cup. And I was on secondment with El Mundo Deportivo, in the commentary box, when war broke out after an international match between El Salvador and Honduras at the Azteca in 1969.
It would perhaps be appropriate were the curtain to fall on my storied career with a report on the Harrogate League Under 18s Cup Final between Menston Rangers and Ripon, which arguably eclipses any of the aforementioned matches for global and historical significance.
The final took place under searing midday heat, on a lovely playing surface at St Aidan’s school in Harrogate. Rangers made a perfect start, a cross from Macaulay being stabbed home by Holliday-Gomes with only 2 minutes on the clock. The outstanding Miller, filling in at centre half, soon doubled the advantage, heading home superbly from a corner. In a frenetic opening quarter to the match, Ripon soon pulled one back from an incisive move before the game settled down. Menston went into the interval 2-1 up, an exceptional stop from Texel in the closing moments of the half maintaining that slender advantage.
A strong Ripon side, crowned league champions a week earlier, turned the match around in the early stages of the second half. They equalised through a penalty and took the lead from a well-taken finish. With Machell's boots disintegrating and Miller a loss to injury, the task suddenly looked mountainous. However, resilience has long been the Menston byword. Taylor and Boughan were magnificent, and Fleming settled into Miller's role with aplomb. Macauley provided tireless energy on the flanks, and his delivery caused constant problems. As Ripon tired, Machell found the net from a corner to level things. The momentum switch was palpable. 10 minutes from time, Macauley delivered the coup de grace from a superb Boughan cross. As the final whistle sounded, the players fell to the ground, spent. A keenly contested encounter ensured that Harrogate League honours were to be divided.
As joint coach Titchmarsh opined, tears flowing down his ruddy cheeks, "Look at my men. Their courage hangs by a thread! If this is to be our end, then I would have them make such an end; as to be worthy of remembrance."
It would perhaps be appropriate were the curtain to fall on my storied career with a report on the Harrogate League Under 18s Cup Final between Menston Rangers and Ripon, which arguably eclipses any of the aforementioned matches for global and historical significance.
The final took place under searing midday heat, on a lovely playing surface at St Aidan’s school in Harrogate. Rangers made a perfect start, a cross from Macaulay being stabbed home by Holliday-Gomes with only 2 minutes on the clock. The outstanding Miller, filling in at centre half, soon doubled the advantage, heading home superbly from a corner. In a frenetic opening quarter to the match, Ripon soon pulled one back from an incisive move before the game settled down. Menston went into the interval 2-1 up, an exceptional stop from Texel in the closing moments of the half maintaining that slender advantage.
A strong Ripon side, crowned league champions a week earlier, turned the match around in the early stages of the second half. They equalised through a penalty and took the lead from a well-taken finish. With Machell's boots disintegrating and Miller a loss to injury, the task suddenly looked mountainous. However, resilience has long been the Menston byword. Taylor and Boughan were magnificent, and Fleming settled into Miller's role with aplomb. Macauley provided tireless energy on the flanks, and his delivery caused constant problems. As Ripon tired, Machell found the net from a corner to level things. The momentum switch was palpable. 10 minutes from time, Macauley delivered the coup de grace from a superb Boughan cross. As the final whistle sounded, the players fell to the ground, spent. A keenly contested encounter ensured that Harrogate League honours were to be divided.
As joint coach Titchmarsh opined, tears flowing down his ruddy cheeks, "Look at my men. Their courage hangs by a thread! If this is to be our end, then I would have them make such an end; as to be worthy of remembrance."
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