RUGBY players will make their acting debut as marauding Scottish savages in this summer's Settle community play.

A team from the Settle-based North Ribblesdale rugby club has agreed to put on kilts and run warlike, screaming, shouting and brandishing swords, to ambush the open-air stage in the finale of the play, which is one of the highlights of the Settle Community Festival in July.

The play is called Offcumdens: A History of Strangers, and the rugby players are to portray the Scottish raiders who used to plague North Craven in medieval times.

John Hargreaves, North Ribb's second team captain, said: "At the end of the play the rugby team, dressed in all the Scottish gear, is going to come running out from all angles, waving swords about and so on, screaming and shouting and pretend to set fire to the stage. We will actually be setting off the grand finale fireworks.

"It sounds like a good bit of fun right in the middle of the close season so it will be a good excuse to get together and have a laugh.

"A mixture of players from the first, second and third teams will be involved."

The play will look at the history of people moving into Settle, including the Italian girls who came to work at the mill and the Cornish people who moved looking for mill work when the tin mines closed.

The play will be performed on Friday and Saturday July 21 and 22 at 9pm in Settle Market Place.

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