WELCOME I extend a very warm welcome to our opponents from Bradford Salem for their first visit to Acklam Park. It's always a pleasure to travel to new destinations and I hope they enjoy their time with us today. Established as Salem Rugby FC in 1923 two years later the club considered changing it's name to Heaton RFC or West Bradford RFC, but instead decided to add Bradford. In their early days a local farmer offered Salem the use of his cowshed as a make-shift pavilion. 6in nails were hammered into large beams for clothes hooks and a large tub used as a bath. The water was boiled in a pig swill container and after the visiting team had washed it was Salem's turn!

They've made big strides since then. Promoted into Yorkshire 1 as champions three years ago last year Salem finished mid-table with points for and against almost identical. This season our visitors lie tenth with four wins from 11 matches; today is their seventh away game, of which they've won only one, at Wheatley Hills. Last Saturday Salem faced all-conquering York and gave them the fright of their lives, holding the table-toppers to 0-5 at half time before eventually losing 0-19. By so doing they became only the second club this season to prevent York from scoring a bonus point; the other is us! In addition earlier in the season our visitors comprehensively beat Moortown one of the pre-season favourites for promotion, so we have been warned.

And a special big HELLO our little cheekie chappies, the U10s, who have brought along their parents and coaches on the express condition that they behave themselves. You are all very welcome to our lunchtime get-together.

LEAGUE RUGBY Much water has flown under the bridge since we last stood here cheering on the 1st team. That was the first of consecutive games against Keighley, the league fixture before our Yorkshire Shield QF. It was a game in which we scored four tries but had two disallowed, and Keighley scored three tries, but two were early Christmas presents from us. How early? The first one was straight from the KO! We gathered Keighley's ball, fumbled a pass, and we were five points down. It was a repeat at the start of the second half – we were running out of defence, fumbled a pass, and 'bingo', Keighley ran through to score. In between, Sean Moloney crossed after a barnstorming run and had another disallowed, Conner dived over and when Pete burst through five tackles and ran half the length of the pitch before being brought down Brendan was on his shoulder to take the scoring pass; Andy's conversions made it 19-11 at the break. It was then 19-16 before we extended our lead; Matty Todd ran the ball from our own half, beating several players before the ball was popped to Brendan and the move finished by Pete, but Keighley replied when their fly half stroked a delicate chip over our defensive line straight into his winger's arms. It was a nail-biting 26-23 scoreline with five minutes remaining, but Andy settled our nerves and the match with a penalty – 29-23 the final score.

What a try-fest at Selby last week – 13 in all, 7 in the first half, 6 after the break, 7 by us (all converted by Andy), 6 by our hosts (only one converted). Selby took a 5-0 lead but at half time the score was 15-28, with each of our three-quarters (Jack McPhillips, Brendan, Pete and Sean) crossing the line and two of Selby's tries scored during a 10 minute period when we were down to 14 men. In a similar second half we galloped into a 20-49 lead with tries from Kieran, Conner and a length-of-the-field cracker from Sean for his second before Selby added another two tries at the end of the match during another 10 minute period when we were down to 14 men. For a team at the bottom of the table Selby showed a lot of spirit and endeavour. And I draw your attention to the fact that we now have the highest number of bonus points than any other club in our league.

CUP RUGBY And so, after we beat Keighley in the league, off we went to sample their 3G artificial pitch for our match in the Yorkshire Shield. At selection it was decided to take the opportunity to include a few new faces; young Jamie Watson started at full back (and put in a Man of the Match performance), Matty moved to fly-half with Andy on the bench (when Andy joined the game it was in the back row!). Even younger Tekori Moore, following the proud family tradition of making his senior rugby début at 17, like his father Simon and grandfather John, played on the wing and Kieran Graham flexed his muscles from the bench; we rested Kieran Clark, who had played all but 30 minutes of every league game to date.

For the majority of the match it was a tense affair. Matty Todd kicked a penalty for the only score in the first half. After the break Keighley scored a try and it stayed at 5-3 until we burst into life to run them ragged in the final quarter. A length-of-the-pitch try from Pete Homan knocked the stuffing out of our opponents, and we cleaned up with a brace from Sean Moloney and a couple of conversions from Matty to win 5-22.

As a result we are now in the semi-finals, when we will travel to either Old Rishworthians or Hullensians, for a match scheduled for 24 February. Their cup match was postponed because they played a rearranged league match two weeks ago. Their quarter final tie will now be played on 10 February.

OTHER GAMES The Wasps have won one and lost one since we last met. The defeat was at table-toppers Morpeth, although Morpeth commented that this had been the hardest game so far this season. It was 5-5 at half time but losing both half backs to injuries in the second period disrupted the team and we lost 43-24, but picked up five bonus points along the way. Last week saw the welcome return of Euan from his travels and his appearance in the CANDY Cup for the Wasps helped them to chalk up their first win at Novos for some considerable time. (Strangely, this was the first win in the rounds of the CANDY Cup ever achieved by the Wasps, yet they have won two CANDY Cup finals!)

The 'A' team have played only once these past three weeks, keeping their winning sequence ticking over with a narrow 22-18 victory over Hartlepool BBOB, whilst the Colts have lost to Harrogate (7-12) and Wharfedale (45-19). It was definitely a game of two halves against Harrogate – playing with the conditions and the slope Gate established a 12 point lead before half time, but were hanging on for dear life at the final whistle as our boys were seeking that extra score. Middlesbrough v Stockton, Saturday 30 December, for the Alan Todd Memorial Trophy.

SPONSORS We are delighted to welcome our two sponsors today, Mark Jones of Armstrong Richardson & Co Ltd, Mount Pleasant Way, Stokesley Business Park, Stokesley and Jonathan Cooper of Coopers Chemists, at Redcar, Marske and Great Ayton. Traditionally Armstrong Richardson was an agricultural merchant trading since 1925 and now has four country stores across the north of England under the banner of Millbry Hill – at Stokesley, Whitby, Richmond and Whitehaven – a fuel business selling to domestic and agricultural customers and a wholesaling business selling horse and pet products across the whole country. Part of the group is AR Entertainments, who have a huge range of equipment that caters for children's parties, student balls, weddings, corporate events and glitzy society balls.

Coopers are a family owned pharmacy business that have been serving Middlesbrough and the surrounding area for over 50 years. They offer a personal friendly pharmaceutical service and are keen to promote local sport and healthy lifestyle advice. Jonathan enjoyed a brief spell playing for the Club in the 80’s alongside the likes of Richard Readman (and accidentally played again 20 years later when he was a guest at a sponsored game!) and he is very pleased to be associated with the club again by sponsoring today’s game.

REFEREE'S CORNER This afternoon I am delighted to welcome Jeff Hudson back to Acklam Park, although you will be forgiven if you don't remember seeing him – his last visit was 15 years ago, when we were in North 1! Jeff was a centre three quarter at Wheatley Hills and is currently looking forward to retiring as CEO of his company. We also welcome his assessor, Neil Copsey, and Ian Brown, who is the referee for the Wasps game against Darlington Mowden Park. I hope they all enjoy their time with us this afternoon.