Huddersfield Laund Hill hosted the traditional annual festive charity over-35s game against near neighbours Lockwood Park.

Despite never winning this fixture over the many years it has been held, confidence was high in the Laund Hill camp as a number of the ‘younger’ players had now ticked over into the ‘vets’ category.

And, sure enough, more or less straight from the kick-off, the home team got onto the scoresheet first with an excellent passage of play that saw winger Ally Lewis get over for a score on the outside.

Lockwood Park fought back and attacked the Laund Hill line with intensity. The defence was good, though. However, some may say too good as the referee showed a yellow card to Corby Nasaqa in a decision that the home crowd vociferously disagreed with.

Despite being a man down, this did not stop the free flowing rugby or the power coming from the Laund Hill pack.

A dominant scrum set the foundation for an attack which saw Hill enter the Lockwood half for the first time in 15 minutes.

The ball went loose on the floor and Adam Ryder fly-hacked it through and scored by the posts.

Laund Hill now had the bit between their teeth and straight from the re-start, former junior Sam Hodge make a nice break downfield.

His former junior colleague was up in support and he fed Keiron Gallager for another quick score.

And it didn’t take long for twinkle-toed Hodge to dance around the defence again and score another just before half-time – leaving the score at the break at 28-0.

As the second-half got underway, Lockwood struggled to get out of their own 22 and the relentless pressure from the home team gifted Sam Hodge another try – certainly a man of the match performance.

Lockwood dug deep and piled on the pressure but an error gifted Gav Stead a break downfield.

The ball went through a number of pairs of hands before Stu Dyke took the final pass and rounded the full-back before racing 40 metres to score under the posts. It was a try that his younger self would have been proud of.

Once again, Lockwood hit back and had a period of sustained pressure on the Hill line but the defensive work was incredible and when the ball was turned over, it was Stead’s turn to race downfield for another score.

He converted his own try and ended the day with a 100% record from the boot, taking the score to 49-0.

Lockwood Park, however, had the last say in the game as this time they made the pressure count as they got the final try in the corner, just as the full-time whistle sounded.

It was an incredible display from both teams, however, despite the historic victory, this wasn’t the main story of the day.

This fixture was established a number of years ago to get old players out of retirement for one more game but more importantly, to raise money for charity.

This year’s chosen charity was The Kirkwood hospice and, due to the generosity of supporters who turned out in their hundreds, the grand total raised was £1,960.

The fixture just keeps getting bigger and bigger and it is hoped to beat this year’s total in 2026 as the game heads to Lockwood Park.