SKIPTON RFC, having enjoyed one of its best seasons for many years, has won a major national award from Sport England for the way it trains and teaches almost 200 youngsters to play the game in its mini and junior sections.

And the award, the Active Sports Seal of Approval, was presented at a gala dinner at the club last Saturday by former England rugby legend Dean Richards. There were also congratulations from another English sporting great, the footballer Trevor Brooking.

The seal, organised by Sport England, of which Brooking is chairman, and the RFU, is designed to encourage children to take up and continue a life-long interest in sport.

It gives Skipton official recognition as a club which is providing its young people with a safe, well-organised and enjoyable environment in which to learn and play rugby'.

The award is very rare and Skipton is one of the first rugby clubs in Yorkshire to be recognised. Only Ilkley in this part of the county has won it so far and few other sports clubs have even tried to enter because the process is long and difficult.

Skipton's juniors have 180 players between the ages of five and 17 taking part in weekly training during the rugby season.

The club's complex application was steered through by Robin Hargrave and Junior Section Chairman Bob Binns, who were presented with the award by Dean Richards, the former England, Lions and Leicester No 8.

The dinner raised more than £2,000 to enable some of the junior teams to go on tour next year - a move which received high praise from Dean Richards, who spoke at length of the benefits of players going on tour, although juniors are unlikely to get up to some of the high-jinks back in the days before rugby union went professional which were described in graphic detail by Richards.

In the audience was a good turnout from Skipton colts, four of whom were in the Ermysted's Grammar School first XV which win the Daily Mail under-18 schools' championship at Twickenham.

Ermysted's train on Skipton pitches and use their recently refurbished changing facilities so the season at Sandylands has ended with jubilation all round.

With Skipton's first team having won promotion to Yorkshire 11 this season and now the juniors having won national praise, last Saturday's dinner marked a triple crown of success down at Sandylands.

In the words of Juniors Chairman Bob Binns: "This has been the cherry on the icing on the cake."