OTLEY and Prince Henry's Grammar School Old Boys served up another Boxing Day treat at Cross Green.
The Prince Henry’s Barbarians lost 30-12 to a star-studded Otley Invitational XV (including a Tongan international), making it three wins out of four for Otley.
Try-scorers for PHGS were ex-student Will Sparling and current first XV coach and PE teacher, Toby Atkin.
Earlier in the day, the mixed PHGS under-12s and under-13s played as Santas versus Elves in a high-scoring and entertaining game, which the Santas won by one try.
After this, PHGS Senior 7s played Otliensians Colts 7s in another high-scoring game, which the Colts also won by one try.
More than £2,500 was raised, which will be split between the school Rugby Facilities Fund and the Town Mayor’s Appeal, which is fundraising for a minibus to be used by local primary schools.
Mayor Peter Jackson was on hand to help with the raffle and keep the day running smoothly.
Ex-PHGS PE teacher Pete Latham kept the crowd informed with his irreverent commentary for the whole day.
Such was the clamour to play in the match that ex-Otliensian Nathan Rogers even travelled up from Jersey to feature for the Old Boys, with substitutes playing for either side, in keeping with the spirit of the day.
* Following the Christmas break, Otley's first team will be back in action this Saturday when they host Tynedale at Cross Green.
The match will be a clash between two mid-table sides, as Tynedale and ninth and Otley are 10th in National League Two North, on 39 and 38 points, respectively.
Otley are coming off a good runs, which saw win two and draw one game in the run up to Christmas.
They won 27-15 away at Huddersfield four days before Christmas.
The week before that, they made history with a no-score draw against Preston Grasshoppers, which was the first 0-0 draw in the National League in 29 years.
Prior to Otley's 0-0 game on December 14, the previous no-score draw took place in a National Four South game between Maidenhead and North Walsham on November 17, 1990.
That result followed on from a massive 10-try effort, which saw Otley thump strugglers Scunthorpe 62-24.
There was also a nice Christmas present for one of the Otley players, scrum-half Max Johnson, who was named the National League Two North Player of the Week award over the holiday period.
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