WELCOME I am pleased to welcome the players, officers and supporters of Horden & Peterlee to Acklam Park this afternoon for what I'm sure – I hope! – will be an interesting match. Last season our visitors finished tenth in the table with 52 points from nine wins, two draws and 12 bonus points. To date they are again lying in tenth position with six wins and one draw from 18 matches. Their six wins have come two at a time, with victories against Gateshead and at Barnard Castle to kick-off their season. Four defeats followed before two more successes, at home to North Shields and Rockcliff. Then a draw and two more reverses led to wins against Barneys and Rovers, since when they've fallen to Westoe, Medicals and 70-12 at Northern – ouch! - before last week losing a high-scoring home match 35-43 to Novos.

In our match earlier this season we were returned down the A19 as victors, having won 52-0, but beware, three years ago, when we were last in DN1, H&P beat us in both games. It'll be a tough old game this afternoon; I'm sure our visitors will come out with all guns blazing seeking to prevent us doing likewise by completing the double this afternoon. Oddly, in that 2016/17 season they finished in sixth place, one place and two points behind us despite having won more games than us.

LEAGUE RUGBY The Alan Todd Memorial Match with Stockton was something to savour, a match that would have thrilled Alan as the final result was in the balance for much of the game; well, after the early exchanges, that is – it looked a bit one-sided in the opening quarter. It wasn't just a match of two halves, the first period was a half of two halves! We were three tries and 17 points to nil up after 20 minutes having had the lion's share of the ball and field position. We scored after only two minutes. We lost the ball in contact only for Stockton's scrum half, Rob Jones, to scoop a kick high but backwards; Toby was onto it in a shot and galloped 30 yards to cross under the posts. Then a forwards rumble saw Danny Hodson touch down before Jamie picked up from a ruck and scampered over. A bonus point try was on the horizon – or so we thought, but Stockton had other ideas. They started to exert pressure, to the extent that Ali Lang was sin-binned. This pressure led to a try for our visitors before Baggy converted a penalty on the stroke of half time to make it 20-7. The second half was a little more even and a bit scrappy in places. Stockton crossed again before Baggy's second penalty made it 23-12 and ensured Stockton finished without a point.

And then, with Storm Ciara gathering her skirts in readiness for a full-scale onslaught to our senses, we braved the weather and headed up to North Shields. We had a new bench, comprising the ever-reliable Billy Campbell, the feisty Jack Wade and the speedster Harry Bryce. With Toby not available Ali Lang moved to No 8 and Shaun 'Samson' Kay, back from injury, slotted into the back row. Although we'd beaten North Shields 65-5 earlier in the season we knew they had a rugged and robust pack, and with the dodgy weather the result was never going to be a foregone conclusion.

In the end we scored 11 tries – as we did in that previous meeting – with nine different players crossing the line. Playing into the strong wind we started with a bang when Ali galloped 50m for our first points. We added another six tries, through Bren, Jamie, Pete, Jack, a length-of-the-field individual scorcher from Sean M, and to complete the half one from Baggy – the only one of the seven conversion attempts he missed. We turned around with a 47-0 lead and the wind behind us. However it's not always possible to predict the advantage of having the elements in one's favour. We did score a further four tries, two from Harry, the first of which he scored with his first touch of the ball. Chris Palmer was revelling in the open play, and having been instrumental in Jamie's try, got on the score sheet himself before the Flying Moloney flew in for his second on the stroke of no-side. With Baggy's eight conversions our final score was 71, our second highest of the season. Although our opponents didn't get on the score sheet they never gave up and deserve credit for battling to the bitter end. Unfortunately, as three clubs will be relegated at the end of this season (see the piece headed 'The Structure of our Game' on p4) it's pretty certain that North Shields will go down, along with Gateshead and Barnard Castle. There is a 17 point gap between third and fourth bottom clubs.
Since that 'please-can-I-forget' defeat by Acklam we have now won eight consecutive matches, in the course of which we have scored 62 tries and 415 points whilst conceding only 100, an average score of 50-14 per match. That's mightily impressive and although I hope we can keep up the momentum to stay in second place I know Horden will do everything in their power to bring our run to an end. Our nearest rivals, third-placed Northern, are still only three points behind us but face a difficult match today at home to unbeaten Consett.

I'm pleased that the day of the Alan Todd Memorial match our 'A' team also were at home to Stockton, a doubling up which is a rare event these days. The game ended all-square, either 24-all, or 19-all depending who you speak to! A match report by 'Yorkshire' is in this issue. Last week the boyos had a trip to the seaside, where the bracing air did them the world of good. They returned from Redcar with a 10-54 win under their belt.

CLUB NEWS As I mentioned above three clubs will be relegated this season, but that's not the end of the RFU's tinkering. As if their not facing enough upheaval with the threatened rebellion by Championship clubs, yet another consultation has begun on the structure of leagues. Please see the aforementioned 'The Structure of our Game' and feel free to make your own representations via the link in that article.

Now that the Six Nations is in full swing have you seen the anomaly going back to the French v England match in 1972? There was certainly some confusion in the programme. Listed in the England replacements was Phil Horrocks-Taylor with the caption “Ailier. Plus solide que briliant. Son frere Chris est un grand joueur de cricket” which to you and me reads “Winger. More solid than brilliant. His brother Chris is a great cricketer.” In fact Phil last played for England in 1962, but at fly-half that day in 1972 was Alan Old, who kicked two penalties and converted the try scored by Mike Breese in England's 37-12 defeat.

We are also giving serious thought to how to celebrate our 150th anniversary in 2022. Time has a habit of flying by and 2022 will be here in the blink of an eye. We would welcome your thoughts and suggestions on what events and activities you would like to see organised to give the season some real impact that such an important milestone deserves. Please feel free to offer your ideas to Dave Waddington, Mike Wright, Gordon Pargeter or Don Brydon – or indeed any one of your officers. We want to make this a whole-club celebration.

REFEREE'S CORNER This afternoon I am delighted to welcome Mark Smith back to Acklam Park, having first visited us two years ago for our Yorkshire 1 clash with Keighley. Mark has been a referee for 12 years having previously played his rugby for Preston Grasshoppers on the wing. He is a maths teacher in Leeds. I hope he enjoys returning to spend some time with us this afternoon.

POLITE NOTICE: Everyone involved in rugby is expected to adhere to the core values of our sport, as identified on p17. This includes respecting the referee and all players. Sadly, from time to time a few isolated souls forget themselves and become heated to the point of making comments unbecoming to them and to this Club. Please remember those around you have no wish to listen to unseemly outbursts and channel your passion more positively.