Much Marcle Primary School just pipped Ashperton to win the Westons tag rugby cup at Ross Road.

The 2005 Ledbury and District Junior Schools tag rugby festival took place at Ledbury RFC and was a great success.

The event saw a fierce but friendly competition from all competitors and the cup, sponsored by local cider company, H Westons and Sons, was only decided by the last game of the A competition with Much Marcle beating a very skillful Ashperton side.

The festival featured 17 teams from nine schools in the Ledbury area and was a culmination of weeks of teaching in the schools by Peter Church, Ledbury RFC's development officer.

This is part of the new Westons Community Rugby Project, sponsored by Westons Visitors' Centre in conjunction with SportsMatch.

The tournament saw the first teams from each of the nine schools playing each other within Group A and a Group B competition contested by second and third string sides.

Twenty eight matches were played in Group B and a total of 167 tries scored. The top four places were taken by second teams from Much Marcle, Ledbury, Ashperton and Colwall; with Colwall coming out on top by a single point.

In Group A, 36 matches were played in the same round-robin format as Group B.

Excellent teamwork and great competitive spirit from all sides ensured the games were exciting and a total of 207 tries were scored. The end of the day saw a close finish with only five points separating the top five teams and Much Marcle securing top place by one point from Ashperton.

Ledbury Rugby Football Club is very grateful to H Westons and Sons for their sponsorship of this project and delighted that Mrs Maureen Weston was in attendance to present trophies and medals to the children.

Participating schools were: Ann Cam, Ashperton, Bosbury, Bromsberrow, Cradley, Colwall, Eastnor, Ledbury and Much Marcle.