THE West Riding League Invitational Cup group stage drew to a conclusion at the weekend, but unfortunately this has also marked the end of the season for our local open age teams.

Brighouse Sports and Farsley Celtic Juniors Reserves were both determined to end on a high, but a Sarah Hemingway thunderbolt and a rare Emily Holroyd smasher saw Brighouse 2–0 up at the break.

Farsley fought back but Brighouse’s skipper Leanne Smith put away another two, then Hemingway completed the scoring to make it 5–0.

There was an interesting game at Ben Rhydding, as Rachel Holdsworth and Megan Robson-Owens (2) put Silsden 3–0 up against Ilkley Town inside 20 minutes.

This seemed to wake Ilkley up, as they dominated from there on, and went on to win 5–3 through Shareen Munir (3), Emily Reader-Harris and Izzy Macina.

Skipton Town and Huddersfield Amateur were both expecting to bounce back from the previous week’s disappointing results, and for Huddersfield, everything suddenly came together for an 11–0 win, including a double hat-trick for Courtney White.

This Sunday’s semi-finalists were finally decided after a close contest. Group A leaders Yorkshire Amateur beat Lower Hopton 3–1 to finish above Morley Town by one point, and are at Group D winners Dewsbury Rangers.

Hepworth Development visit Ripon, after beating Golcar 3–1 in the Group C decider, meaning sadly none of our district's clubs made it through the group stage.

Queensbury Celtic had a key Yorkshire U18 League Cup game at Amaranth. A depleted squad put in a strong, battling performance, with the game on a knife-edge for over 70 minutes.

But two late goals for Amaranth saw Celtic drop down to next month’s League Shield semi-finals.

Bradford City FITC Girls U12s are through to the West Riding Girls’ League Cup semi-finals, after a close 3–2 win against Hunslet.

City’s U14s and U15s are going for a League and League Cup double, with semi-finals day scheduled for June 12.

In other fixtures which took place, Brighouse Town hosted Sunderland in a friendly. An even game with many chances saw Town all-square at the break, but the Black Cats won 2–1.

This Sunday, some Bradford (Park Avenue) squad members are playing against a team from My Desserts, in a benefit game for the people of Palestine.

Kick off at Southfield Grange is at 1pm, and all are welcome to attend.