WELCOME It gives me great pleasure to welcome our visitors from Durham City. It’s certainly true that neither of us are enjoying the current season as much as last year. We started our campaign at home to Durham last season with a 32-8 victory, but finished with an 8-19 defeat
at Hollow Drift, which gave City a comfortable mid-table position with 12 wins and two draws. This season they kicked off with a one point win at Keighley; unfortunately after 10 games it is still their only victory as they lie second bottom to Darlington with five points and a negative points difference of 370. However I should point out that their other nine games have been against teams currently occupying the top nine places in the league, and they lost to Pocklington by only three points. On Saturday they played their rearranged match at Morley and lost 94-7; ouch! Beware of a backlash today.

TEAM NEWS Our own season has been pretty disappointing to date, having lost both games since we last met here three weeks ago. We could and should have beaten Cleckheaton. We led 3-0 at half time and although we conceded seven points after the break we hit back with a Simon Moore converted try by Peter Whitaker to take back the lead 10-7. A penalty by Cleckheaton evened the score before they added another seven, and despite a tremendous effort we could not add to our tally. However against O Crossleyans, although our pack was on top in the first half
our second half performance was not very good. 10-3 down at half time we eventually lost 36-10.

Many congratulations to the ‘A’ team who are now six points clear at the top of the Tees Valley league after a 24-20 win against their nearest rivals, Bishop Auckland 2nds. The win takes the team to 18 points, with Bishop Auckland, Stockton and Billingham all joint second on 12 points. I have to say the game was a joy to watch; it was entertaining end-to-end rugby with the score constantly changing hands. It followed the team’s victory over Billingham in the Tees Valley Merit League Cup (brief reports on both games are in the programme and fuller versions by Joanne Chilver on the website), a win which earns them a home quarter final tie against Guisborough in two weeks time.

Following victories over Hartlepool Rovers and Ponteland the Wasps are going for three in a row against Percy Park in a rearranged match today and the Lions are looking for their eighth win from 11 games against Acklam today. Meanwhile our Colts have had an unpredictable few weeks away from home. First they beat table-toppers Huddersfield 10-7, a side which had earlier won here 22-12, before losing 32-7 to bottom club Dinnington, a team we’d beaten here 46-5, and then last week at Rotherham, who’d won here 19-0 in September, played very well to contain them to two break away tries but still lost 14-5. Reports appear on page 18. Tomorrow the Colts are at home to Percy Park in round 3 of the National Cup; KO 1pm

JUNIORS It was a mixed bag for junior teams during late October/early November. The U13s bounced back in week 9 with a great win against Harrogate after a tough game v York the week before. The lads are equipping themselves very well in 15 aside play and are holding their own against the big Yorkshire sides. They won an exciting Yorkshire Cup game v Castleford. The U16s were knocked out of the Yorkshire Cup on a narrow pitch against a big Selby pack three weeks ago but returned with impressive wins against Gateshead and Harrogate. These lads continue to play some lovely handling rugby and it is great to see a full team of 15 who are all comfortable passing off both hands and run intelligent lines of support. The U15s had a very difficult fortnight. They fought hard but were edged out of the Yorkshire Cup by a very capable Sheffield team. They have lots of very physical and some very fast players who are used to overpowering opponents. These recent setbacks against equally tough and well organised defences provide a good opportunity for the lads to focus on being better all around players.
Last but by no means least, the U14s have continued what has been a great season so far. They lost to York when all of the representative players were missing but notched up an impressive 33-0 win against a good Horden team followed up by a fantastic 54-12 win in the Yorkshire Cup v Doncaster. They’ve drawn Pocklington at home in the quarter finals. Of course it’s not all about the winning, the players’ development and enjoyment being more important, but for what its worth see below the running totals for wins/losses:-
Running totals: U13s P8 W5, U14s P9 W6, U15s P14 W9, U16s P10 W8

CLUB NEWS First of all let me say a huge THANK YOU to everyone involved in making Bonfire Night another great success; this includes Steve the groundsman and Ian the manager of Acklam Park, both of whom put in tremendous effort over and above the norm to ensure the night’s success. Incidentally, although a Yorkshireman, Guy Fawkes fought for Spain against the Dutch in the Eighty Years War. A militant Catholic he adopted the name ‘Guido‘to make himself sound more continental and devout. Sentenced to death for his part in the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ he managed to jump from the gallows and break his neck, so was unconscious during his drawing and quartering (castration and disembowelment), unlike most of his co-conspirators.

Great news about the Annual Ball – so many people have bought tickets that the room charge has been scrapped, and therefore the price has dropped to £36 (see the details on page 5). And now get out your diary for…our Christmas Lunch on 15 December…the Members’ Christmas Draw on Sunday 16 December…the world-famous 4th Annual Acklam Park Pie Baking Competition on Wednesday 19 December… followed by the Carol sing-a-long the following evening… the children's Christmas Party on Saturday 22 December…and the aforementioned Annual Ball, to be held on Saturday 29 December at the Thistle Hotel.

We were delighted that Yorkshire launched the defence of their National U20 RU Championship title here at Acklam Park on Sunday, when they scored six tries in a 40-14 victory over Northumberland. Two converted tries in the first five minutes laid the foundation for victory. Northumberland added a converted try before Yorkshire pulled ahead to lead 28-7 at the interval. When Yorkshire lost two players to the sin bin Northumberland collected their second try but the White Roses team had the last word to chalk up a comfortable win.

SPONSORS Today we are delighted to welcome sponsors Casper Shipping Ltd, the number one shipping agency for specialised bulk services, documentation and customs clearance in the North of England and Scotland which has been around in one guise or another as an independent agency for 140 years. We thank Kevin and Michael Shaksheff for their continued support, which is much appreciated.

REFEREE’S CORNER I am delighted to welcome three referees to Acklam Park today. Steve Penfold is in charge of our league game for what I think is his first time at Acklam Park, although he has refereed us at Darlington. He is an ex-army man who played rugby buried in the pack, although he has been a referee for about ten years. Steve is now studying at Leeds to be a lawyer. We are lucky to have Society referees appointed for our other home games this afternoon – David Birks is taking the Wasps v Percy Park match whilst Alan Tickner is in charge of the Lions v Acklam. Welcome one and all; I hope you enjoy the afternoon.