WELCOME Although the Festive Season has faded into the mists of time the postponement of the Ryton game means that this is the first opportunity I've had to wish you and yours a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. As the second half of the season is now up and running I welcome you all back to Acklam Park for an exciting celebration of cup rugby, with Hullensians our opponents in the Yorkshire Shield and Percy Park playing our Wasps in a CANDY Cup and league double-header...all followed by England v France on TV.

For our quarter-final tie in the Shield I am delighted to welcome Hullensians back to Acklam Park, particularly as we can catch up with one of our Old Boys, Jonathan Steel, their player coach. Jonathan joined our Juniors from Northallerton and was always an outstanding player in an outstanding team, which included Peter Wright. The boys enjoyed an unbeaten season as U16s, winning the Yorkshire Cup in the process; Jonathan scored over 50 tries in 34 games and went on to play county rugby at U17. The big boys came calling and he left us for Northampton and then moved to Glasgow Warriors and Borders; he won five international caps for Scotland in 2000-1 (there's a photograph of him in the corridor receiving his international cap), before switching codes and joining Hull KR and then Featherstone Rovers, winning 10 Scotland RL caps between 2005-10. He returned to Union with Hull Ionians before Hullensians. It's great to see him back in our midst.

We last met Hullensians two seasons ago when we were transferred into Yorkshire 1; our visitors came out top in those two games, winning 28-10 at home and, despite us leading 12-5 at half time and 17-10 with only minutes to go, coming back to draw 17-all here at Acklam Park – so beware!

Our visitors began their league campaign pretty well, with three home wins and two away draws before their first defeat, away to Bridlington. The return fixture was on Saturday; Bridlington again won, but are the runaway leaders. Their preceding three matches were decided by a gnat's whisker, losing 23-21 (Keighley) and 20-19 (Beverley) whilst beating York at home 31-30; nail-biting stuff! Hullensians are tenth in the table, Aclear of the bottom four clubs who are scrapping to avoid relegation with only five points between them (one of those clubs being Acklam, who have beaten our visitors 52-19). Hullensians record reads seven wins and two draws from 18 matches, but only one of those victories has been away from home, at second-bottom Yarnbury.

I've mentioned the exploits of our U16s in the late 90s. I am pleased to welcome our current U16s, with their coaches and parents who join us for lunch today. They are doing so well this season they have their own special feature on page 2. Please read about their success.

LEAGUE RUGBY Our last home match was against Northern (and thank all of you who made our Christmas lunch such an enjoyable hors d'oeuvre to the game). We produced some of our best rugby of the season, taking the lead when Adam Nolson joined the line to finish a good move and then pressure on the line brought a try for Euan Tremlett, converted by Matty to give us a 12-3 half-time lead. We swapped penalties before Northern came back with a try, but tries from Peter Homan and Sean Moloney, plus a penalty try, all converted by Matty, took us clear at 36-11.

We followed this by losing 25-17 at Novos. We began by conceding an immediate try from the kick off, and although young Sam did well at scrum half and Euan again played a blinder up front, we trailed 17-3 until Peter Homan burst through two tackles to make the score 17-10 just before half-time. However we fell further behind before skipper Liam Wilson finished a good move, Matty again converting. At 22-17 with 15 minutes left we pressed for points but a late penalty sealed it for Novos.

Last Saturday it took us a while to recover from the journey to Stockton. We quickly fell 12-0 behind, a score which would have been worse if Stockton had successfully converted two penalties and a conversion. As it was we added a converted try before half time and two tries and a conversion after the break to lead 12-19, which was still the score with 30 seconds left on the clock, and then...deep in their own half a Stockton scrum was propelled backwards, but they managed to win the ball, break clear and score under the posts. 19-all and the final whistle. Our try scorers were Peter Homan, Sam Seymour and Ben Wood, with Matty making two conversions. Our natural disappointment was tempered by the performance of Colt Kieran Clark, who made his first team début and handled the occasion very well indeed, as you might expect from a prop who has played county age group rugby two years young.

OTHER MATCHES There was very little sign of any holiday hangovers when our Wasps entertained Novos in early January. It was a cracking game of rugby controlled by a genial referee dispensing advice here and there; both sides scored two tries out wide but the Wasps won 12-10 courtesy of a fantastic touch-line conversion by Angus McColl. (There was one anomaly; a Novos player was sin-binned after 20 minutes but was off the park for only five minutes!) There is a match report by Jonno in this issue. Since then they have draw 27-all with table-toppers Billingham and beaten Alnwick; Jonno's match reports will appear in future issues.

Last week the Colts faced West Park Leeds, a side they'd beaten earlier in the season in the Cup. Unfortunately they lost 12-17. It was a good even match which we could have won and were pressing for points at the end of the game. They immediately bounced back by returning from O Brods with a 26-12 victory, reversing their Cup defeat three weeks earlier. Last Sunday they lost to a very strong Wharfedale side. The 'A' team were also unfortunate. They played Horden away and lost 36-7, losing a man to a head injury in the first half, and having to play second half with 14 men. But they also bounced back to beat Stockton 44-17.

CLUB NEWS A HUGE THANK YOU...to Brad for organising a Holiday Handicap Sevens competition, which got 40-odd players down to the Park for an action-packed afternoon (it was won by Team Jordan Miller, earning themselves a pint apiece, just pipping Team Jack Bircham, who got a packet of peanuts,each!)...to Keith for organising the Children's Christmas Party...to John Westwood for ensuring our Christmas Sing-a-Long went off with a bang...and to everyone who entered our record-breaking 8th Annual Pie Baking Competition. The pies were all so good the judges called them back for a second tasting, vital for the premier pie-baking contest in the area. Eventually the trophy was awarded to George Dobbs, who delivered a corned beef pie with a closely-guarded extra special secret ingredient, followed by Kirsty Jones and Keith Bircham.

And then, to add a special sparkle to our Festive Fayre we welcomed a group of U16s/17s/18s from Beaconsfield Rugby Club, Quebec. They used our facilities as their base and were delightful guests. After a rigorous training session on New Year's Eve they tasted, for first time, Yorkshire puddings and Christmas pudding, before spending the evening with us, enjoying the music and dancing until we welcomed in the New Year. On Monday they played a Boro team of mixed ages and won 12-19, scoring three tries to our two in a hard-fought and exciting game. Again they stayed until almost closing time, behaving impeccably and were a real credit to their Club.

Sadly, I know of one piece of tragic news over the holidays. Christopher McDonald suffered a severe stroke just before Christmas and then died on Boxing Day. Chris is the brother of Michael and a proud member not just of the Club but of the Saga Louts who sponsor our Beer Festival. He was a smashing bloke and our sympathy goes to Mike, Margaret and Andrew.

REFEREE'S CORNER It gives me great pleasure to welcome Owen Taylor back to Acklam Park this afternoon. He first came here as a player with Doncaster 13 years ago – as a 13 year-old! He then returned last March to take charge of our Yorkshire Shield match with Keighley. Originally from Doncaster Owen played in the second row and back row for his home club and for Thornensians; he also played for Northampton Scouts and refereed for the East Midlands Society when he was a student at Northampton University studying podiatry. He has been refereeing in Yorkshire for three seasons and is now studying Sports Medicine at Leeds Metropolitan University. I hope he enjoys his time with us today.

LATE NEWS Another of our former youngsters, Lewis Boyce, has just signed for Harlequins.

FINALLY...HELP! Do any of you..em..slightly older members remember/have any information about Peter Marsh who played here in the 50s/60s before moving to Redcar RUFC? His son is trying to put together a scrapbook for Peter's 87th birthday this year.