With thanks to John Dixon for pointing out that this entry is a little late...
WELCOME and let me join with Brad (see p9) in wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. We are delighted to welcome Keighley back to Acklam Park, and it is a real pleasure to entertain their second team as well. I’ve always thought that 1st and 2nd teams ravelling together, as used to happen quite often, is to be applauded.

Do you remember 25 April 1981? We entertained Keighley after our Easter tour to Torquay Athletic and Birmingham. Would you believe that Keighley had to battle their way through snow drifts and blizzards to get here with a weakened side because some players were snowbound, to find Acklam Park bathed in sunshine. We won 27-0 with a team which included Mike Wright, Dave Waddington, Bernie Coyne, Stu Micklewright, Peter Riley and Doc Enevoldson, all of whom are still involved with the Club. Our visitors returned 12 years later in the Yorkshire Cup, when we won 50-5 in a seven try romp, with Tilly anchoring the engine room.

Beating Alnwick in the promotion play-off Keighley made an OK start to their campaign in N1E. Their first four games were all very close affairs which saw them with a points tally of F88 A85. They suffered defeats against Durham and Northern but beat Darlington - and then us! Although we were all square at the break the match ended 18-17 in favour of Keighley. However, since then our visitors have managed only one more victory, beating Darlington 21-15 at Christmas. That sounds like a pretty dismal run but in fact it took a last minute drop goal for Northern to beat them 15-13 on Saturday, having lost to them earlier in the season by only three points. They also lost to Malton & Norton by a single point, to Cleckheaton and to O Crossleyans by only two points and to Pocklington by four points. So, with just a little more luck, Keighley could be sitting comfortably in mid table – we had better beware!

TEAM NEWS Following our disappointing loss to Darlington, when a try scored at the final whistle after a clear-cut knock-on beat us, we suffered a gut-wrenching loss against Northern, when a try by our opponents in what seemed like the 115th minute took them level with us on 11 points; the conversion hit the post but went over – and the referee blew for time. What made the result so frustrating was the heroics we displayed during the first half. With Northern camped on our line we had two thirds of our front row yellow-carded within minutes of each other and yet not only successfully defended our line but drove upfield for Connor to cross for a try, still two men short. Penalties by Simon either side of the try gave us an 11-0 half time lead, which, for long stretches of the game, looked as though it would be enough for us to collect four points, but it was not to be.

We didn’t get off to the best of starts last week at Malton & Norton when we suffered three late changes; captain Richie Barker and front row stalwarts Richie Horton and Craig Chapman were all unavailable. In a dour match we were poised to go in at the break 8-6 down, courtesy of two penalties from Simon, when we shipped a converted try to skew the score-line. We actually ‘won’ the second half 5-6 with two more Simon penalties but just failed to earn that elusive bonus point.

The annual Alan Todd Memorial Match was sandwiched between these league games. We retained the Trophy, scoring five tries in atrocious conditions underfoot to run out 29-8 winners – see the report on p5.

Apart from the 1st team losing at Malton last Saturday was another cracking day for the Club – we turned out five senior sides yet again…or we would have done had Gateshead IIs not cried off at 11.30am on Saturday because they couldn’t raise a team, leaving our Wasps without a game. Thereby is the root of our problem – whilst there seems to be a general reduction in the numbers playing rugby, to the extent that several clubs seem to have difficulty even at second team level, we are experiencing a revival with increasing numbers available. Unfortunately this gives Eddie the monumental headache of finding suitable fixtures to accommodate our thriving army of players. Anyway our four other sides were all victorious, with the ‘A’ team continuing their fine form by winning a rather scrappy game 13-6 against Acklam, reported on p5. The Lions made the short trip to Acklam where they won convincingly by 35-5, whilst the Bees travelled a little further to score a resounding 72-5 victory at Seaton Carew. There is a downside. With the majority of last season’s very successful U16s called up to Academies and Schools of Excellence the Colts are struggling for numbers. However the last scheduled match at Christmas against Keighley was called off, not by us but by our opponents.

CLUB NEWS A hectic Festive Season saw the notorious Lizard Run take place after the Northern game. It was highly amusing to see the look on children’s faces when not one Santa Claus appeared, but 60 of them! There were a number of reports of strange-looking men in red suits meandering around the town centre late at night. This was followed on Sunday night by the most successful Members’ Christmas Draw (I won a box of biscuits!) and then the 4th Annual Acklam Park Pie Baking Competition on Wednesday (see p4). I am delighted to confirm that apart from being a great party night with lots of delicious pies available to sample the event raised an impressive £770 for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Well done to Mark Jones, Stozz and their cohorts. The following evening Santa (Westy) Claus presided over the Carol sing-a-long – thank you John (and Lynn Bruton for running a raffle which added £60 to the Guide Dogs total). Then the Ladies Committee took centre stage on Saturday with the very well organised and best ever Children's Christmas Party (can there have been a year when so many Father Christmas’s were seen in and around Acklam Park?)…and the following Saturday we crossed the river for the Alan Todd Memorial Match at Stockton, which we won 29-8 (see p5) and then rode into town for our Annual Ball at the Thistle Hotel, which I’m pleased to say was the best attended Ball for some time. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in arranging, assisting with or simply attending all or any of these activities.

I’m sorry that we lost the opportunity to host the Falcons U18 league game against Leicester, but we offered them facilities tomorrow and when that wasn’t suitable suggested a 12 noon KO today, remembering that we’re entertaining two sides from Keighley. Initially this looked a goer, but in the end Leicester turned it down and I believe they’re at Billingham today.

And finally let me congratulate Ollie Hodgson and Josh Walters on being selected for the North of England U18s squad, U13 player Ellis Jones for being selected to join the RFU-run Durham County School of Rugby after three tough rounds of selection, and our very own young man Zach Kibirige, who scored two of Newcastle’s four tries at Doncaster on New Year’s Day, a win which took the Falcon’s 17 points clear at the top of the Championship table (but still no guarantee of promotion as they will face those dreaded play-offs, for which other contenders often recruit for the specific purpose of reaching the Premiership – shame on them). Well done to all of them.

SPONSORS We are delighted to welcome back to Acklam Park Bill Blakey, Director of Kaefer C&D Ltd of Jarrow, and his guests; we are pleased to see you all and hope you have a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. Kaefer C&D is a progressive and innovative organisation offering a complete outfitting package to all sectors of industry, including the offshore sector and is one of the UK's leading integrated service providers throughout the UK to both the private and public sectors. The company has over 850 employees and 12 branch offices located throughout England, Scotland and Wales and is a member of the Kaefer Group one of the world's largest industrial services companies active in over 50 countries with a workforce of over 18,000.

REFEREE’S CORNER I am also delighted to welcome back to Acklam Park today’s referee David Downham. Last season he took the Wasps’ game in October and then the first XV against Team Northumbria in March. David has refereed for about 11 years, having previously been a hooker for Castleford: he is an accountant.