Rugby Notes from ‘Clubman’

Survival has been achieved and we play in National Three North once more when fixtures for the 2008/9 season are shortly put together but it has been a long and hard struggle after losing nine of the first ten ‘league’ games of the campaign – the other being a draw against Morley before starting to put it right at Harrogate mid November.

Clearly much of that success has to be attributed to the introduction of Steve Mannion into the coaching set up but as he so readily dedicated after the game it is also the efforts of veteran Scrum Half Andy Rice both on the park and training field that has made the squad into the compact unit that it is but the players themselves, injury hit though the squad has been throughout, who also must take credit for that self belief they have instilled within.

It is likely that both Steve & Andy will not be around next season and our thanks must go out to them for their impressive input to the squad but at the same time we must now look forward to next season when unbeaten Kendal will be looking for a quick fix after promotion from North One after a big rebuilding job at Mint Bridge along with the running youth of Loughborough Students who won Midlands One..  Either Huddersfield or Luctonians will come up with them depending upon play off this weekend whilst at the other end we could also lose DMP who travel to Cinderford for their play off.  Halifax & possibly Nuneaton will resume Three North duties on relegation from Division Two but this I will confirm next time round.

Interesting to note that if we had taken maximum points from the nine games where we gained a losing bonus point we would today be sitting in 3^rd place in the table instead of 4^th from the bottom!!

Whilst our defensive record is up with the best (we are better that 6 sides above us in the table) our attacking options need looking at as only relegated Beverley and Ionians have scored less points than our 443.

Around the club on Saturday it was good to see a full house well into early evening with another well attended pre match dinner with our guests from the Macc Express & Silk FM who have assisted in our publicity so much this season.  I look forward to many more such functions next season.

The Seconds have had a particularly good week with a midweek thrashing of Chester on Wednesday at Priory Park followed by a closer 15-8 victory at Caldy with a very young XV on the park in which Jack Sugden at Lock was M of the M on his debut.  This side play their final game against Manchester at Grove Park on Saturday in the knowledge that they will finish a very creditable third in the Bateman BMW Premier League a position all the more creditable with the massive injury list that the senior squad has had during the season.  Thanks to Chris Hehir for his outstanding efforts throughout the season.

The Thirds, sadly, did not send a side to Leigh for their game and this meant that the Fourths who played and beat Knutsford 15-5 at the top of the table are penalised another four points which means that Knutsford are Champions despite having an inferior record to ours and the Vets simply just continued their success with a high scoring victory over Congleton at Priory Park whilst showing off their silverware pre match.

On Sunday, I am delighted to report, the Under 13’s won the Cheshire Cup at Wirral when they beat old rivals Altrincham Kersal by 15-12 in the final scoring three tries to two and this adds to the Cheshire Cup successes of the Under 7, 9, 10 & 11 sides who all won their age groups Cheshire Cups as well with the Under 8 being losing finalists and Under 12’s into the Semi Finals.  Clearly those lads, if they stay at the club, will provide massively to the senior Squads in years to come and the future is bright thanks to the hardworking coaches/parents involved with all the mini/junior sides.

Whilst there is a little tidying up before the season finally closes this will be my final column of any length until next season and my thanks to Steve Mannion who is always ready with a quote and to my travelling companions to all those long away games Peter, Dot & Jock who have managed to keep me sane especially after that fraught early start to the season.  More miles next season I suspect!!  My car knows the A1 & M62 without any sat-nav assistance.

Don’t forget Cheshire v. Yorkshire at Priory Park on Saturday 3 May next when a couple of the Blues squad will be in County colours and also the club AGM on Wednesday 21 May at 7.30.pm. – lets see a good number turn up at this one please.

Finally the 200 Club draw made on Saturday went as follows:

1^st & £100 – Peter Jones, 2^nd & £60 M Hetherington, 3^rd & £30 Dave Allen.

I won’t mention the response to the RFU raffle which failed to raise four figures after a poor response last year that saw just £1405 made towards kitchen refurbishment save to say that the Vice Presidents of the club sold five times more tickets that senior/junior sections put together.

It’s up into the loft now for the linseed oil and pads in readiness for Saturday when hopefully spring will have fully arrived.  Where did I leave my bat?......................

Clubman