NORTHALLERTON are determined to make amends for their Twickenham disappointment by winning the Yorkshire Silver Trophy on Saturday.

The final, against Wetherby, has been switched from York to Hull Ionians' ground, leaving North to ponder why they are required to travel so far. But the match offers the chance to end the season on a high note after losing the National Junior Vase final 23-7 against Battersea Ironsides.

After languishing for years in mid-table in Yorkshire Three, skipper Joe Terry insisted the club must use the Twickenham experience as a launching pad to greater things.

“The support was unbelievable,” he said. “We would not have got there without the help of everyone who rallied round, including the sponsors. We owe them all a massive thank-you.

“We need to build on this and come back next year bigger, fitter and faster.”

Both sides scored one try but Ironsides, named after a second world war tank, had a siege gun kicker who landed six penalties.

Northallerton had only one shot at goal, but Terry had no complaints about the penalty count going heavily against them, saying: “I thought the referee had a great game. We'll put our ill-discipline down to over-eagerness. We left everything out there but were beaten by the better team.”

Ironsides provide a classic example of how a community club can be developed as they claim to have 830 junior members and a senior coaching team of seven.

Having only a short distance to travel, their fans heavily out-numbered North's contingent of around 300, two coachloads of whom had left at 5am for the 11am kick-off.

It was a long day for those who stayed for the duration with two more cup finals followed by the Under 20 Championship final, in which Yorkshire were captained to a 36-3 win against Berkshire by Middlesbrough product Josh Burridge.

Both he and his brother Tom, who was also in the squad, are now back row players with Wharfedale. The team also included Mowden Park lock George Hedgley.

North's defeat stemmed largely from the desire to give all seven replacements plenty of game time on the hallowed turf as they lost their way when they started to make substitutions after 30 minutes.

They had already replaced four forwards when No 8 Iain Swall was injured and from being 7-6 ahead they fell 14-7 behind at half-time.

They had initially looked to hold the edge up front, but with the changes they lost their momentum and never regained it in a scrappy second half.

“We came to win but it was always the plan to give everybody a good run-out and it was a blow to lose Iain Swall because he's our big ball carrier,” said Terry. “We lost a bot of structure.”

The forward endeavour was typified by the big hits of lock Rob Barnard, but rain had left the surface damp, which didn't help the handling.

There were knock-ons galore and the referee couldn't be blamed for ignoring one as Northallerton looked like taking advantage. But they lost the ball and Ironsides broke away from halfway to score their try.

Northallerton were led out by stalwart prop Nick Bainbridge, who played for them for more than 30 years before retiring recently through illness.

An early chance was squandered when they kicked a penalty to the corner and lost the line-out, then watched a clearance bounce in-field and lost 70 metres.

They went 6-0 down but took the lead after 20 minutes when they scrummaged strongly on the 22 and scrum half Pat Hebblethwaite darted forward and found fly half Alec Porter. He covered 15 metres on a diagonal run before the greasy surface allowed him to dive and slide over before adding the conversion.

Ironsides kicked their third penalty on the half hour, then came their try and they added three penalties in the second half.

Northallerton sent replacement winger George Wagstaff charging down the middle in their best move of the second half. It was stopped just short and they never really threatened again.