Match Preview

York Lokomotive will eventually play their first North Yorkshire Cup match proper after qualifying by beating Catterick Crusaders last month, each succeeding game has fallen foul to the weather. They travel to their friends on the Yorkshire Coast, Scarborough Pirates. The game will take place at the Pirates home in Humanby on Saturday 7th April almost a year to the date from the last time they met, with the Lokos coming out on top that day. It will be a 2.30pm kick off and it promises to be another tight tussle between the two,

The Lokos have met the Pirates 17 times since the York club’s inception in 2008 which makes them by far the Loko’s biggest adversary on the pitch and it currently stands at 9 victories to 8 in favour of the Minster city side. Amazingly the scores are also very tight with Scarborough just taking the lead with 404 points against the Loko’s 399. They have met each other every year barring 2015 and in the majority of years they have taken one game each save 2011 when the Pirates won both and 2012 when the Lokos got their revenge by taking victory in each game. 2014 saw the east coast boys spoil the Lokos party when they took the points in the Lokos 100th game, which somewhat put a downer on celebrations. In 2016 the teams again shared the spoils with Scarborough gaining a 46-18 victory by the sea and the Loko’s coming out on top 34-20 in the Vale. Last year they only met once in a pre-season friendly in Scarborough with the Lokos earning a ‘W’ with a 34-28 victory. This year the sides will be seeing a lot of each other with at least 3 meetings, this NY cup game, twice in the league and it is also possible that they could meet in the York & District Cup, with the Pirates entering for the first time and also there is a high chance they could be meeting in the league play offs or even the Grand Final. Regardless of how many times they meet though it is guaranteed to be a fantastic game and as the evidence proves a very tight one too.

The game will also see one of the Lokos’ originals Tom Gargan make his 70th appearance for the club, and if he manages to cross the whitewash a couple of times this will take him up to two score tries for the club as he currently stand at 38 which is a 152 points.

Lokos’ pin up boy and Hong Kong international Danny Lee will be making his 40th appearance for the club and will be looking to add to his 60 points curtesy of 15 4-pointers.

Barnstorming youngster Will Hampshire will be making his 2018 debut and turning out for the 11th time in the red and white.

The Steeden North Yorkshire Invitational Cup Group Stages

Scarborough Pirates v York Lokomotive
14:30 KO, Saturday 7th April 2018
Hunmanby Playing Fields, Sands Lane, Hunmanby, Scarborough, YO14 0LT