WELCOME to our visitors from Gosforth, to our sponsors and their guests, to Ian Ford and the Barclays Bankers (careful..) and two of our outstanding old boys from...well, a year or two ago! We are delighted that Rory Underwood and Paul Wood have joined us today – I only hope we can put on a performance of the kind that regularly thrilled us. Rory joined us as a Barnard Castle scholar at the end of the 1979/80 season and scored 27 tries in 37 games; his appearances were understandably curtailed by many representative honours, for Durham, Yorkshire and England U23s. He left us to join the RAF and then Leicester, the only other club he played for, signing off in 1983 with a game against Hull & ER in which he scored – not a try but a drop goal! Rory won a then record 85 caps for England and six for the Lions, scoring 50 international tries. He also did us the honour of officially opening our new Clubhouse eight years ago, along with Liam Plunkett.

Paul holds the Club record for the total number of points scored in a season. He joined us from Redcar in 1977 and immediately established a points record of 260, seven better than AGBO's haul in 1969/70. Five years later, in 1982/3 he increased this further with a tally of 336 points, almost half of our final points total of 737; that was the season Bert Robinson led us to victory over the mighty Gosforth All Stars. Paul holds one other proud distinction. He was such an immaculate fly-half that he held this position even when the 19 year-old Rob Andrew returned on holiday from Cambridge University having just been awarded Man of the Match in the Varsity Match; Rob was selected at centre. Paul's time with us was interrupted when he did a degree course in London. Nevertheless in just 126 games for us he scored 1,042 points.

I am also pleased to welcome the new Gosforth back to Acklam Park. Last season we each won our home games. Although we scored two tries to none at Gosforth the key fact is that it was our first defeat of the season, as they brought our six-game winning sequence to an abrupt end with four penalties and three drop goals, the third on the stroke of no-side with the score tied at 18-18. As I said we did win the return game 36-5, a game in which there were three stoppages for broken noses, although admittedly two were for the same nose – Toby's! For the first ten minutes we were a bit wary but it was the same Toby who settled our nerves with a dazzling run from the base of the scrum – a shimmy, a dummy, a try.

This season it took our visitors a while to settle down and they lost six of the opening seven league fixtures – the exception being a 25-24 win at home to Stockton. However the situation was then reversed as they won six of the next seven games, including another one-point victory over Stockton. Their last six games have been more uneven, losing to Barnard Castle, Westoe, Gateshead and then last week going down 15-3 at Consett. They chalked up their two wins against Medicals and Hartlepool. As a result Gosforth lie two places behind us with nine wins from their 20 games, but only three have been away from home. Here's hoping they don't improve their record today!

LEAGUE RUGBY There were mixed of emotions last week. True we improved our points difference in beating Ryton, but you have to feel some sympathy for our opponents as they experience one of those spells of misfortune which can befall any club. Their frighteningly long injury list of 17 players includes nine first-teamers. As a result of these absences they have lost their last 18 league matches, are doomed to relegation, and can no longer field a second team. Remember in their opening league game they beat our visitors today, Gosforth, and then Hartlepool – and we really struggled to come away from their place with a 14-17 win.

Despite their problems Ryton set about their task with gusto and proved a real handful in the scrums and at the breakdowns. But in the end they had no answer to the wave after wave of our attacks. Playing with a strong wind at our backs we opened our account after 5 minutes when Andy Micklewright went over. Five minutes later sleight of hand from Euan when he stole a Ryton line out led to Matty Helm adding our second score. Toddy converted both and then his own try before another of Callum's mazy runs ended with the bonus point on 25 minutes. The half ended with two typical Sean Moloney tries, giving us a 40-0 lead. We scored another 8 tries playing against the wind, through Sean (another two), a brace from Ben, another one each from Callum and Toddy, plus one each from Peter Homan and Euan. We converted 13 of the 14 tries – the 14th hit the post! – shared between Toddy (8) and Callum (5). And congratulations to young Brendan Hill, who made his 1st team début on the wing.

YORKSHIRE SHIELD The Shield semi-finalists have now been decided. Our opponents here at Acklam Park in two weeks time will be Wath upon Dearne, who beat Selby (from Yorkshire 1) 35-7 last Saturday; Wath are seventh in Yorkshire 2, having won nine and drawn two of their 20 league matches. In last week's other QF Pontefract beat Wetherby 31-14 and will be at home to Bridlington, who defeated York 43-7.

OTHER MATCHES The Wasps were also victorious on Saturday, beating Gateshead 38-7 in a thrilling and competitive CANDY League match. Playing into the stiff wind they fell behind to what was to be Gateshead's only score of the match, but turned around 14-7 ahead before using the wind to good advantage to finish the job. For more details read Jonno's match report on p9. 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 day 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.

CLUB NEWS There is good news about Ian Collingwood. 'The Admiral' has been in hospital after tonsillitis turned to septicaemia, but just as we thought they were going to continue his treatment with antibiotics doctors decided to operate. He went under the knife on Monday morning and again on Wednesday, when they had a better idea of what they were looking for. We are told he is feeling much better and we continue to wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him up and about soon.

We were honoured and delighted to welcome Ray Kelly, the President of Yorkshire, to our match last week, all the more because although Ray is Chairman of Acklam RFC many years ago he was persuaded by Ted Heron to play rugby here at Acklam Park as a Colt. I'm sure he enjoyed his visit – he won a butchers-shop full of meat in our post-match raffle!

PLEASE NOTE We are preparing a new Strategy for Development, the draft of which will be presented to a meeting of members on 23 March; more details will be circulated soon, but if you are interested in the future of the Club please make an effort to attend.

SPONSORS I am delighted to welcome back two of our regular sponsors this afternoon, Charles Clinkard of the Clinkard Group and James Barker of Barker & Stonehouse. They are two of the area's long-established and most important family-run businesses, with national and international profiles. Not only are our two sponsors keeping step with one another in developing new iconic local headquarters but they are also continue to grow their national profile. Barker & Stonehouse now have 11 stores nationwide, shortly to be 12 with a new store in Hove opening next month. The Clinkard Group has grown to be the leading Independent Footwear Retailer in the North East and one of the largest Independents in the UK. Last season I reported that the group had 33 stores across the UK. Ever-expanding there are now 35 outlets. I hope we can serve up an entertaining afternoon for Charles, James and their guests.

REFEREE'S CORNER I am delighted to welcome back Mike Ramsden, a referee with 37 years experience who first refereed us when our numbers included Rory Underwood and Rob Andrew as young whipper-snappers launching their careers. He was last here for our game against Yarnbury two years ago. He is also one half of a father-and-son combination to take charge of our 1st XV – son Nick was the referee when we played O Brods five seasons ago. Mike was a full back at Harrogate, making his début at the same time as Peter Squires in a team which included Roger Shackleton and Geoff Cook. He is a legal eagle, working as a trainer in the legal department of Minster Law in York. I hope he enjoys his visit this afternoon.
MEMBERS REUNION: Saturday 8 April, before (and after) the Westoe match!