WELCOME It is a great pleasure to welcome Old Brodleians back to Acklam Park after a gap of an incredible 28 years – and they come as the only team in the league with a 100 per cent record. Last season they finished fifth in the table, with 77 points from 16 wins and 13 bonus points. This season they opened their account with two home wins, against Northern (34-17) and Gateshead (52-18) before making the short trip to Old Crossleyans, winning a close encounter 20-13. Last week they were back at home, beating Percy Park 25-23. Although Park dominated the game for long periods, and were 3-20 ahead after 45 minutes, they could not extinguish the spirit of a Brods side who, assisted by yellow cards to both Park’s flankers, fought back to 15-20 and then, with 10 minutes remaining, took a 22-20 lead only to go 22-23 behind five minutes later. And then the final twist, with seconds on the clock, a pressure penalty by Wood from out wide to secure what had looked like a most unlikely win.

Brods were formed in 1930 by a group of former pupils of Hipperholme Grammar School, endowed in the 17th C by Matthew Brodley (hence Old Brodleians). As far as I can tell we’ve met only three times in all. Our first meeting was in 1980/81 when we won 34-6 here at Middlesbrough with a team which included a 17 year old Rory Underwood (he didn’t score but t’other winger, Derek Laidlaw, did, as did Hugh Kelly, Bernie Coyne, Nigel Ene and Dave White, with Stu Micklewright adding 14 points). In 1983/84 we met in the Yorkshire Cup, again here at Acklam Park, when we won 17-0, with Bernie Coyne again scoring, as did Adrian Williams with Paul Wood slotting over nine points. We were again drawn together in the Cup three years later, this time at Hipperholme, when the tables were turned and on a night of incessant rain we had current Press Secretary Mike Read sent off, and we lost 13-6. Our Chairman Mike Wright played in the first two matches, Colts coach Andy Duff in the last two, and Coaching Coordinator Bernie Coyne in all three; interestingly, Mike Latus and Phil Wright (see the Lions v Whitby report) both played in the third match.

Incidentally, by a strange coincidence Old Brodleians will be back at Acklam Park in two weeks – their Colts that is; we have a National Colts Cup match against them on 16 October. We’ve met several times at Colts level, most recently in January when they arrived with a 100 per cent record but we beat them 22-19. The season previously we met in the final of the Yorkshire Cup and won a nail-biting game 16-15…so turn up on the 16th to watch another exciting encounter!

LEAGUE NEWS Last week we returned from Northern with a satisfying 20-14 win, despite falling behind to an early penalty. Richie Horton set up the first of our three tries for Peter Wright after nine minutes then winger Mike Thornburn scored out wide on the right. Callum added a conversion and a penalty for a 15-9 interval lead but was injured ten minutes after the break. This was followed by injuries to Shaun Richardson and Richie Barker. Jack scored the third try when he got the ball on halfway, handed off his marker and chipped over the full back for an excellent try before Northern got through to score, but we controlled the final few minutes to earn four points. Although we weren’t at our best our hosts were adamant that we were the best team they’d faced so far this season.

We also fell behind to an early penalty the previous week against Morpeth, but quickly levelled through Callum before conceding a second penalty. However a try from the returning Bellers gave us an 8-6 lead at the break and we were never behind again. Good team work saw Matty Helm crash over for a try, converted by Callum; we conceded another penalty before Bellers raced over from half way for his brace, with Callum again converting, and finally Wrighty completed our scoring with a bonus point try. Although the second half was played virtually in the Morpeth half, they managed to reduce the gap with a try after Richie H was yellow-carded.

OTHER GAMES What a blast from the past! A fortnight ago the Lions entertained a Whitby side which included Phil Wright and Mick Latus; not to be outdone our secret weapon was Bobby Thompson – with a combined age of something like 217 the three of them played their part in an enjoyable game of rugby. Although we lost 8-31 the match was 50/50 up front with their backs having pace to score the points. However the last 20/30 mins we showed great heart and desire for the ball and Whitby found it hard to get the ball back. All in all it was a great game with Whitby just having that cutting edge. In an excellent effort our try was scored by Curly and the penalty by Chris.

Since the last report the Wasps have lost two games but hope to break their duck at Darlington today. The Colts, on the other hand, are enjoying a good unbeaten run of four games with wins over Selby (25-10 away) and Huddersfield YMCA 22-4 at home last week. Summaries of both games are in this issue, with fuller reports on the web site.

JUNIORS Two weeks ago our U14s enjoyed a memorable weekend. They were invited to the Newcastle Falcons U14s 7s tournament before their Saturday league fixture with Leicester - and they won it. And then on Sunday…well, remember ‘Thought for Today’ in our last programme? ‘Nothing is impossible…’ for the living embodiment of this I take you to the U14s match at Harrogate. We played each other 4 times last season with honours even – the home team winning; the Harrogate lads were confident, with one Harrogate facebook entry on Saturday night reading "tomorrow we are going to kick some ass." This prediction looked spot-on midway through the second half – we were 17-0 down with five players off injured including the fly half and both centres. But when the going gets tough… up stepped Guthrie, Luke, Pennington, Allan and Granville - who, with five minutes to go and the score pulled back to 17-15, went under the posts to touch down, raised the ball to do his customary 'kingfisher crash down' (like Chris Ashton having a fit in mid air) …on the touch line we all thought "please don't drop it", but he gently touched it down. Phew! 17-22 with two minutes remaining. Was there a chance for Harrogate to come back? No! Stevenson crossed the line to make the final score 17-29. Talk about the Mother of all Comebacks! Read JOB’s full match report on the website. To cap a thoroughly satisfying day for the U14s our Development team beat Thirsk 71-12.

The U15s (away) and U16s (home) also played Harrogate, both winning, 38-10 and 54-5 respectively; match summaries appear in this issue. Unfortunately the U13s, also playing Harrogate, lost 5-36. The U16s were hosts to Doncaster last Sunday and won a thrilling encounter 19-15. With tries from Tom B, converted by Nath, and Fez we were 12-3 up at the break. A spell of Donny pressure moved the score to 12-8 before Tom B scored his second try, again converted by Nath, but back came our visitors and with time ticking away they added another seven points. This was a good game with some periods of really good play from both sides, notably our first 15-20 mins in which we were outstanding. Credit to Donny for muscling there way back into this game and they put in a great second half effort into the wind.

CLUB NEWS Don’t forget tonight’s evening of wine, cheese, games and fun. If you’ve left it late to get your tickets have a word with the Ladies after the match – you could be lucky. And make a note that Bonfire Night will go ahead on the Saturday evening; it should be quite a day with the firsts and Wasps at home, and ‘the Boro’ on the box at tea time – sounds like fireworks galore to me!

REFEREE’S CORNER We extend a warm welcome to Nick Ramsden, son of Michael, himself a regular visitor to Acklam Park over the years as a referee. Nick is an IT specialist at Nestlé’s in York; he played in the second row for Northamptonshire Colts when a Towcestrians RFC. A referee for five years this is the first time he has been in charge of the 1st team

THOUGHT FOR T0DAY “Food is an important part of a balanced diet.”