WELCOME I am pleased to extend a very warm welcome to our old friends from Hartlepool Rovers, who will be coming here to finish off their season with a real bang whilst seeking revenge. They started their season with a heartening 12-33 win in the Cup at Ryton, but then kicked-off their league campaign with a defeat – we beat them 18-32! They then lost five of their next seven games, and 13 of the following 18 matches. At one point Rovers had slipping to third bottom in the table, but what a turn around in recent weeks. Saturday's 5-0 derby victory against Horden was Rovers seventh consecutive win, which included away victories at Consett, Acklam and Gosforth, a sequence which has lifted them to a commendable sixth place in the table.
SAM THE MAN I am delighted to offer more congratulations to Sam Gaudie. After a number of stellar performances for Yorkshire U20s Sam has been selected for the North of England U20s squad for the Divisional Festival at Welbeck College, Leicestershire, where the North will join the Midlands, the South East and the South West. Following the Festival 23 players will be selected to take part in a tour by the England Counties U20 team to Russia this summer, playing two matches against the Russia U20 side. The team will play their first match on Sunday, 5 June in Moscow with the second match on Wednesday, 8 June. Sam has been one of the stand-out players for Yorkshire this season and his selection is just reward for his efforts; well done Sam, and the very best of luck when the selectors sit down to decide the squad for Russia. Congratulations also to James Wright, another Boro old boy who is also in the Yorkshire and North squads. Hopefully Yorkshire will go on to win the U20 County final against Northumberland at Twickenham on 7 May, and so retain the title they won last year.
LEAGUE RUGBY First of all I must congratulate Durham City on their promotion into N1E. They have enjoyed an outstanding season and thoroughly deserve to be crowned Champions. That leads me to the battle for the third promotion spot – our Play-Off for promotion against Malton & Norton next week. My reading of the RFU regulations is that if we can win today, whatever the score, we will be at HOME. M&N have one fewer points than us so need a five-point win to draw level with us on 108 points from 22 victories. Regulation 13.2.10 (d) states baldly “A Play-Off Match shall be held at the ground of the Club with the Best Playing Record” - that's it, no further explanation! For clues to the “best playing record” regulation 13.2.5 - Club Positions states that If two or more Clubs have the same number of League points at the end of the Season, final league positions shall be determined firstly by the number of wins achieved and then on the basis of match points scored...If Clubs have equal League points and an equal number of wins in the League then a Club with a larger difference between match points ‘for’ and match points ‘against’ shall be placed higher in the League than a Club with a smaller difference between match points ‘for’ and match points ‘against’. We have scored 796 match points for a points difference of 456: M&N have scored 649 for a difference of 273. But I must stress, for any of this to be relevant we need to win today!
Our eagerly awaited game against table-toppers Durham City last week provided some quality rugby, and if the result didn't go our way I have to say that although the better team on the day won, the scoreline did flatter City somewhat. A late breakaway try and an even later penalty try gave the final score a rather lop-sided look. It's true that although we scored first with an early penalty from Charlie, City had the better of the half, with their bigger pack coping better with the wet conditions. Some sterling and determined defence by our guys kept the score to 3-8 at the break, after which we enjoyed our best period of play. However three points from Sam was our only reward, although the Gaudie Boys almost snaked their through the City defence with a dramatic break, foiled only by an ever-so-slightly forward pass, and a garotte of a tackle on Sam. Our endeavours were then disrupted when Toby left the field injured and Isa was yellow-carded. City's celebrations were a sight to behold!
OTHER MATCHES Congratulations to Jason Malcolm and our U17s who, having beaten Mowden Park in the Northern Area final of the National Plate earned a match against Leicester Forest RFC, winners of the Midlands Area final. Our lads had to leave at 7.30 on Sunday to travel to Moseley for a 12 o'clock kick off. The journey was long and tiring, and in the end they lost the match. This was their first defeat of the season, but to lose a final is certainly no disgrace. I am pleased to report that tomorrow they have the perfect opportunity to bounce back; they play West Hartlepool in the Durham Cup at Bishop Auckland.

It has been widely reported that our U15s experienced a thoroughly enjoyable trip to North Wales during the Easter break. They went off to Rhyl and played five matches, emerging as beaten finalists in the Festival. In an truly international competition they beat Denbigh, Bangor, Ayr and O Halesonians en route to the final, where they met Abergavenny. Last week they lost to Stockton, but it was an immensely exciting game; the final score was 22-26.
Until recently our U14s had not lost a match since before Christmas. Unfortunately that has now changed and they've lost their last three outings, against Roundhegians, Wetherby and Westoe, although they all away from home and the scores were close in all three games. They have an opportunity to get back to winning ways when they entertain West Hartlepool tomorrow. Meanwhile our U12s, having carried all before them at the Whitby Festival at the beginning of the month, are hoping to repeat the feat at the Redcar Festival tomorrow.
CLUB NEWS What a splendid turn-out for our Members Reunion last week! It's always a real pleasure to see so many familiar faces – some of whom we've not seen for quite a while and some of whom travelled long distances to join us. Thank you all for helping to make it a memorable occasion and for assisting Martin Wain in his efforts to build up a more comprehensive data base of contact details. It was good to see Martin back in the fold and working his socks off for our benefit, for which he deserves a big 'thank you.'
As I keep reminding you, our Annual Dinner and Presentation Night will take place at the Sporting Lodge on Friday 13 May; if you haven't already done so ask your team captain, coach, Simon Moore, Don Brydon or Richard Ward for tickets. Our Junior Dinner is the next Friday. It's in our fixture book, but to make sure you have no excuses for not turning up, can I emphasise that our AGM will be held on 15 June. Yet another reminder - our Beer Festival this year it will run from Friday evening to Saturday night, 22/23 July, and will include a selection of ciders as well as live music. Make a note to get here early – we sold out last year!
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. For more information about both firms see page 4.

REFEREE'S CORNER I am pleased to welcome Carl Walsh from the Central Yorkshire Society back to Acklam Park. His last visit was for the Selby game a year ago, when he was a late replacement for an injured colleague, but he was in control of our game at Hullensians earlier that season. Carl is from Otley and played his rugby as a hooker. He has been a referee for 11 years and described himself as a 'bed guru.' I hope he enjoys himself today.
Finally, thank you all for your support over the season, it was much appreciated (although I hope we are all gathered here again next week!). Can I add a personal note of thanks to Andy Murray for the mountain of unseen work he does behind the scenes; for example, without his diligence you would have no information about our referees – we might not even have referees!