Northern Area Weekend
Mar 20, 2023 • General
Teams from Cumbria, Yorkshire, East Riding, Northumberland, County Durham and Lancashire descended en masse on Wyke College Hull on the 18th and 19th February to compete against each other at the Northern Area Weekend
Hosted by East Riding YFC. Members took part in speaking, reading and performing arts competitions, played hockey, rounders and basketball and showed their skill at street dance and jump rope.
Once again, the Cumbria teams came away with a whole host of trophies and awards continuing their winning streak of previous years. The Saturday speaking competitions got off to a fantastic start with the Raughton Head YFC team of Millie, Neve and Mia placed 1st for Cumbria B in the Junior Public Speaking (16 and under) competition. Drigg YFC and Lowick YFC were also awarded very well-deserved 2nd and 3rd places respectively for Cumbria A and C. In the overall competition, Millie was awarded 1st place for Best Chair with Billy from Drigg YFC placed 2ndand Zara (Lowick YFC) placed 3rd. Sam from Drigg YFC and Mia from Raughton Head YFC won joint 1st place for the Best Vote of Thanks and Neve was placed 2nd for Best Speaker.
Wigton YFC’s Ella Batey, Philippa Hall and Katie Mckie took first place for Cumbria B in the Call My Bluff (21 and under) competition with Lowick YFC for Cumbria A placed 2nd. Raughton Head YFC were placed 5th for Cumbria C. The Wigton team showed their collective strength in the Best Overall Panel placings, with Ella taking 1st place, Philippa 2nd and Katie 3rd.
The Raughton Head YFC Cumbria A team of Amy Blamire, Euan Bulman, Phil Potts and Robbie Tuer continued their winning streak by claiming 1st place in the Open Brainstrust competition. Lowick YFC were also placed a very credible 3rd place for the Cumbria B team. Kent Estuary YFC were placed 5th for Cumbria C. Amy Blamire took 1st place and Leah Clough (Lowick YFC) 3rd place for the Best Overall Chair and Phil Potts took 1st place for the Best Overall Speaker.
Lowick YFC’s Alice Woodburn was placed 2nd for Cumbria C, Jade Haughan of Wigton YFC was placed 3rd for Cumbria B and Ben Cooper from Lowick YFC was placed 4th for Cumbria A in the Situations Vacant (22 – 28 competition). Lucy Gibson of Grayrigg YFC took 3rd place for the Cumbria B team in the Situations Vacant (16 – 21) competition. Macie Rumney and Ella Batey from Wigton YFC took 6th and 7th place for Cumbria C and A respectively.
Charlotte Wilson, the Cumbria YFC County Vice Chair took 2nd place for Cumbria A, Will Longmire, the Cumbria YFC County Chair took 3rd place for Cumbria B and Josie Mitchinson from Raughton Head YFC took 10th place for Cumbria C in the Senior Member of the Year competition (18 and over).
In the Junior Member of the Year competition (17 and under), Cumbria B’s Callum from Crook YFC took 4th place with Maisie from Lowick YFC taking 5th place for Cumbria C and Billy from Drigg YFC placed 9th for Cumbria A.
Lowick YFC for Cumbria C were placed 4th in the Junior Reading (14 and under) competition. Caldbeck YFC were placed 6th for Cumbria A and Skelton YFC were placed 7th for Cumbria B. Maisie from Lowick YFC was also thrilled to be awarded 2nd Best Chair and 3rd Best Reader in the competition.
Cumbria continued to shine in the sports with Eden Valley YFC’s Cumbria B team taking 1st place in the Men’s Rush Hockey (17 – 28) and Kent Estuary YFC placed 4th for Cumbria C. 5th place went to Lowick YFC for Cumbria A. Kent Estuary YFC continued their sporting prowess, taking 2nd place for Cumbria C in the Ladies Rounders (17 – 28). Wigton YFC were placed 4th for the Cumbria B team and Lowick YFC were placed 5th for Cumbria A.
Although not in the top placings, the Eden Valley YFC team for Cumbria A and the Grayrigg YFC Cumbria B team enjoyed competing in the Mixed Basketball (10 – 16) and were placed 4th and 5th respectively.
Eden Valley YFC were also delighted to be placed 2nd for Cumbria A in the Street Dance competition. Lowick YFC also added to the overall score tally by placing 4th in the Jump Rope.
With the stage at Wyke College providing a great venue for the Entertainments competition, Raughton Head YFC’s talented cast took 1st place for Cumbria A with their highly polished performance of their production “Stranger Things”. Including Day of the Dead dancers, spooky sports and a rather dodgy clairvoyant, Raughton Head YFC took the performing arts competition to a whole new level of professionalism and thoroughly deserved the rapturous applause.
Against stiff competition from other counties, Wigton YFC delighted the audience with their very clever performance of “Square Eyes”. The cast had taken the judges’ comments from previous rounds on board, giving a stellar performance and were placed 4th for Cumbria B. Grayrigg YFC’s all singing, all dancing “Through the Decades” wowed the audience with some rather cheeky dance moves with the club being placed 5th for their energetic efforts for Cumbria C. To add to the delight of the Cumbria performers, Will from Wigton YFC won Best Actor for his performances of Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss!
After a fun filled and action-packed weekend of competitions, Cumbria YFC were delighted for Cumbria A to be placed 1st, Cumbria B 3rd and Cumbria C 5th. Those teams and competitors who were placed 1st or 2nd will now go on to compete at the NFYFC finals with the entertainments competitions taking place on the 22nd and 23rd April and the speaking competition finals taking place on the 8th and 9th July.
