WELCOME I am pleased to welcome Wath upon Dearne, our visitors from Rotherham, for this Yorkshire Shield semi-final game. We met three years ago in the league, when we were 'level transferred' into Yorkshire 1 in 2014/15. We won both those games, 26-0 at home and 40-5 in the return fixture. Unfortunately, our visitors finished bottom of the table and ended up in Y2. The following season they finished sixth and to date in the current campaign they lie eighth, having won nine and drawn two of their 21 matches. Wath have one thing in common with us – their home record is far better than than their away form. Of the 11 away games they've played they've won only two, whilst they've lost only three of their 11 home matches. In previous rounds of the Shield Wath have beaten two teams from Yorkshire 1, Selby 35-7 and Bradford Salem 24-17, both at home. I'm glad today's game is at Acklam Park!

LEAGUE RUGBY Our match against Gosforth wasn't as one-sided as the scoreline of 41-8 suggests. It was a feisty affair with four yellow cards presented (three to us!); our visitors were combative, secured a lot of possession and put us under sustained periods of pressure. Under the watchful eyes of Rory Underwood and Paul Wood, two of our former Super Stars, there were three main differences between the teams – in defence we covered and tackled like demons, in attack we were more clinical, with experienced centres Peter and Andy providing a combination of strength and guile, coupled with old-fashioned rugby know-how to the benefit of the rest of our flying backs, and then there was our secret weapon, Robbie Small in the front row.

The match started and ended with Gosforth scoring, but in between we scored three tries in each half. We were three points down immediately when penalised from the kick-off. Gosforth then pressed for ten minutes, intent on building on their lead, but Ben plucked a Gosforth pass from thin air and raced from our half to score a fine individual intercepted try. Matty added the conversion and a penalty to give us a 10-3 lead at the quarter stage. Callum then scored what can only be described as a typical “Callum try” before Ben touched down following a great passage of interplay with the ball passing through 11 pairs of hands. Half time score 22-3.

Midway through the second half and only five minutes apart Shaun and Euan were driven over to re-establish some sort of ascendancy and subdue a very lively Gosforth determined to get back into the game. These were quickly followed by our sixth try, from Conner, Mr Perpetual Motion, with Matty adding his fourth conversion. Our opponents still came back at us, being rewarded with the final score of the match.

After the game four very proud players, Jack Pierce, Sean Moloney, Gareth Lang and Sam Seymour, were awarded their 1st XV ties, memorably presented by Rory. As you can imagine lots of photographs were taken with Rory, including one charming family group with Sam (still a Colt, don't forget) flanked by brother (and U16 player) Will, father Tom and Grandfather John, both of whom earned County honours whilst playing for the Club (see photograph on p4).

Last week we won only our fourth away game of the season, beating Hartlepool 18-39. It was quite remarkable how many of our team were or still are Boro Colts. This was the team which took the field: Adam Nolson, Sean Moloney, Andy Micklewright, Peter Homan, Brendan Hill, Matthew Todd, Sam Seymour, Kieran Clark, Jack Wade, Josh Lynas, Marcus Lang, Jack Pierce, Gary Rock, Stephen Hughes-Narborough, Euan Tremlett, Charlie Bircham, Liam Baxter, Myles Colvin. There were two late changes from the team selected, when Gareth Lang and Shaun Kay had to withdraw. Of these twenty players only ONE has not played Colts rugby for us. Who is the odd man out? The answer is at the bottom of the page.

But back to the game itself. Although we fell 5-0 behind we took a 15-17 lead into the break. First Matty kicked a penalty and then added conversions to two Sean Moloney tries, giving us a 5-17 lead. However Hartlepool's strong pack scored two more tries to leave the game finely balanced at the half way stage. Our opponents then kicked a penalty to take the lead again but thereafter we took control and we scored three more tries, two conversions and a penalty to run out winners. Peter began the scoring spree to cap another great performance, vying with Euan for Man of the Match, being followed by tries from Charlie Bircham and Stephen Hughes-Narborough. As a result Northern and Westoe are now the only teams to have scored more points than us, and only the top three have a better points difference than ours.

OTHER MATCHES The Wasps were also victorious two weeks ago, winning 0-31 at Acklam. It was good to see Jay Ellis and Andy Geekie back from injury, with Andy scoring to boot. They took the lead when Matty John headed the ball to Man of the Match Tom Symon, who got the touchdown. Last week the Wasps headed north to Westoe. Westoe's home league game with Ryton was postponed; their second team weren't short of players. They won, but only just, by 18-17. For more details read Jonno's reports on both matches.

The 'A' team suffered another case of 'league-free Saturday' blues. Following their heavy defeat by Acklam when Acklam first team didn't have a game they went to Redcar on Saturday, another club without league fixtures, and again lost heavily. The boys are showing tremendous spirit and lots of guts in agreeing to play anyone put before them. Well done guys. On Saturday they went to Northallerton for a 'proper' game, and lost 24-10.

The Colts suffered the disappointment of being the better side but still losing 19-12 to Huddersfield in the semi final of the Yorkshire Cup. They suffered further disappointment last week, losing 19-15 in a rearranged league match at West Park Leeds.

CLUB NEWS The very good news is that Ian Collingwood, 'The Admiral' was sent home from hospital almost two weeks ago. After two operations he is understandably in some discomfort but I'm told he is eager to get back to reaffirm his No1 position on the pool table. We wish him a speedy full recovery and hope to see him up and about soon.

Members are invited to an open evening to discuss plans for our future development. The meeting will take place on Thursday 23 March, at 7.30 in the Function Room. There will be a short presentation followed by discussions concerning proposals for our future development and how you can become involved. If you are interested in our future please come along.

Let me offer a warm welcome to the Richardson party, all here to celebrate Lee Richardson's 40 birthday. We all wish Lee Many Happy Returns; I'm sure he won't be offended if you offer to buy him a celebratory pint after the match! It's also good to see former captain Paul Manders back at Acklam Park, and even better news to hear that Mandy is back for good! Despite my exhortations he has no intentions of joining the ranks of our 1st team, but he is talking about rounding up other finely-tuned athletes for the occasional Vets outing, and I mean Vets – none of this Over 35s stuff, he is talking about Over 50s!

Dates for our 4th Annual Beer Festival have been announced. The Festival will run from 6pm Friday until 10pm Saturday, 21 and 22 July, the opening weekend of the local schools summer holidays. Your presence is requested! Why don't you, or a group of you join together to sponsor a barrel? Have a chat with Simon Moore, Colin McNeill or Tilly. And don't forget that our Members' Reunion will take place in three weeks, when we play Westoe on 8 April. If you have not already done so please register your place with Keith Bircham.

REFEREE'S CORNER This afternoon I am delighted to welcome Laurence Pearson to Acklam Park, a newcomer who has been a referee for seven years. As a player Laurence was a scrum half both at junior and senior level at Keighley before joining O Brodleians. He is MD of a training company. I hope he enjoys his time with us today and takes away fond memories of his first visit.

ODD ONE OUT: Sean Moloney has never played for our Colts, playing football until a couple of seasons ago. BUT his brother Aeden did play Colts and senior rugby here before going to University in Newcastle and joining Novos and then Tynedale.