BOLTON Under-12s narrowly missed out on a place in the bowl final at Preston Grasshoppers' annual tournament.

The competition features the cream of North West talent and Bolton won one game, drew one and lost one in their group matches.

The Avenue Street lads beat the hosts 5-1 in the opening game with Oliver Keogh opening the scoring before a hat-trick by Leon Hodson and a further try by Tyler Maley.

The second game against Manchester saw two tries from Ben Price which should have been enough to win, but Manchester equalised with the last play of the match, which would prove to be decisive in the outcome of the group stage.

A 3-0 defeat to Waterloo Hoops killed off hopes of going through as group winners, and gave Bolton a semi-final tie with Liverpool in the bowl competition in which Maley and Hodson scored tries in a 2-2 draw from which the Merseyside team progressed by virtue of having scored first.

The previous weekend, Bolton's u8s reached the quarter-final at the Vale of Lune Festival.

In the group stage they drew 6-6 with Rossendale before losing the second game 7-5 to Kirkby Lonsdale and then beating Wilmslow 5-2 in the final pool match.

They drew 6-6 in the quarter-final with Vale of Lune getting over the line in the dying seconds and going through on a tries-scored format.

Corey Morgan, Liam Jenkins, Oliver Brennand and Tom Forrest were outstanding for Bolton, supported by great efforts from all this season's new players including Lucas Barlow, Tom Green, Jack Pollitt, Jacob Collinson, Archie Kavenaugh and Tom Evans.

The club's u14s completed their season with a 48-5 defeat at home to Broughton Park.

With Bolton missing a number of players and a large squad and some sizeable players in the opposition team it was always going to be a big task for the Cherry and Whites.

Park set out their intentions from the start by trying to batter through the Bolton forwards, but the Avenue Street players held their ground with Benji Williamson, Jack Phillips and Ed Webster getting through a huge amount of work in the back row to halt the attacks.

With Kynan Smith and Lewis Warburton looking assured in the centre, Park switched the focus to their speedy wingers, with attack after attack being repelled.

It was clear Bolton were going to be severely tested. When the line was finally breached, it looked certain a try would be scored but Josh Parry made the first of a number of spectacular try-saving tackles.

The pressure finally told with the first try and the pattern was set with Park dominating possession and rugged Bolton defence frustrating them.

Tom Didlock had an impressive debut with some powerful tackles and strong carries, supported by his second row partner Matthew Barlow.

Bolton conceded three more unanswered scores as the pressure told and went in at half time 26-0 behind.

Bolton started the second half strongly when Myles Crook crashed through for a deserved try after being set up by Josh Aspinwall.

Bolton switched tactics to attack down the wings through Matthew Jones and Tim Greenwood but could not breach the line and Park, who continually freshened legs with substitutions, scored a further four tries.