More than 70 girls took part in Letchworth s Canada Day rugby festival last Wednesday. The festival was organised around the visit of I E Weldon Secondary School from Lindsay, Ontario. Weldon are the champions of Central Ontario and were on an Easter to

More than 70 girls took part in Letchworth's 'Canada Day' rugby festival last Wednesday.

The festival was organised around the visit of I E Weldon Secondary School from Lindsay, Ontario.

Weldon are the champions of Central Ontario and were on an Easter tour - the first overseas tour by their girls' team.

Letchworth also invited other clubs from neighbouring counties to take part.

The festival featured teams and players from Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, Ely, Peterborough, Towcester and Sudbury, all combining in various ways to form teams to take on the Canadian visitors.

Letchworth and Sudbury reformed their National Cup "Letchbury" team to start the day, and in a close game came from behind to beat Weldon 17-12.

This performance by the team from Canada was all the more impressive considering that this was their first game since November, when their season goes into hibernation for the winter.

Aylesbury (with Milton Keynes) then took on Weldon who showed excellent handling and fast running to run out 24-5 winners.

Barbarians (Ely, Peterborough and Towcester) - who had lost only narrowly to 'Letchbury' 10-7 thanks to a try in the final move of the game - finally took on Weldon and went down 17-0.

The day did not end there as after a meal, Letchworth organised a series of traditional rugby club games, all of which the Canadians proved remarkably adept at!

I E Weldon also played Welwyn and Hertford before travelling home on Easter Monday.