WELCOME First of all let me offer a warm welcome to the President of Yorkshire, Ted Atkinson, a man of Driffield. We are delighted he has joined us this afternoon and I hope he we can serve up a free-flowing, fast-moving rugby fest for him to enjoy.

And can I now welcome Selby to Acklam Park. I remember them coming to us in the Yorkshire Cup one windswept Wednesday, which happened to be April Fools day, in 1987. when current officers Andy Duff, Bernie Coyne, John Burridge and Mike Read were in our colours; we won 20-9. This season in the league Selby have won seven matches at home and four on their travels. Many teams have sequences of wins – or indeed losses – but not Selby. All the way through the season they have pretty much followed a win with a loss. Last week they won, so this week...? Although two places behind us in the league they have won 11 games to our ten. In theory today should be a close encounter (and remember Selby beat us 6-3 earlier in the season) but the one thing we have learnt in Yorkshire 1 is that predicting results is highly dangerous. That win last week for our visitors was against second-placed Malton & Norton, who were 14-5 ahead and apparently heading for victory, but Selby scored 17 unanswered points to take the spoils.

MATCH NEWS For our home game against Pontefract at last we had conditions underfoot more to our liking. We were missing a few regulars but had Shaun Kay returning from working away and Michael Thornburn from a broken nose, and with Lee Richardson making his second appearance and Chris Palmer making his seasonal début (and what a game he had!) we were primed for action. We did win, by 35 points to nil, but it was a strange match. At half time it was 6-0 and you'd think it was an evenly-contested tight game, yet the final score suggests it was a bit of a walk over. Neither comment is right. Before the break we were camped in our opponents' half – they managed to get into our half only once yet we could not breech their line; two penalties by Simmo was the sum of our efforts. For all our dominance truth be told a six points lead was worryingly close, and true to form after the restart our visitors spent more time in our half. But, as the half progressed, a try from Richie Lonsdale, plus the conversion and a penalty by Simmo stretched the lead to 16-0 and we began to feel a little less anxious. And so it stayed until the final few frantic minutes, during which we added a further 19 points. Phew – three tries and two conversions in the blink of an eye! First Euan used his height to pluck the ball from thin air and waltz through a gap, with Simmo converting. It was constant attack now and Josh was deemed not to ground the ball before Matty John burrowed over the line; with the referee about to call it a day a smart move along the line resulted in Rhys popping over the whitewash, with Jack adding the extra points – I was amazed Jack was still on the pitch after a thunderous tackle on their winger, in full flight, which must have echoed around the whole of Teesside.

Last week we could capitalise on this win; in a game we could have won, indeed should have won, we lost 13-7 at Scarborough. As Terry F said “I've heard the expression 'seeing red,' but 'seeing yellow'?” From the kick-off, Euan was taken out in the air and it could have been a yellow card for the offending Scarboro player, but they took the lead with a penalty after only three minutes. A little later a penalty to us slid past the post. Neither side was having much success in breaking down defences until a turn-over saw the ball moved to Rhys and a break took him close to their line, from which Jack scored a try, assisted over the line by Matty J. Simmo added the extra points from a difficult position. Close to half time, Boro failed with a chance to stretch the lead with a penalty in front of the posts, and so went into the break 7-3 ahead. The second half saw Scarboro pull back another 3 points with a penalty goal, and soon afterwards, our frustration led to a series of yellow cards reducing us first to 14 men with Richie Horton off, then to 13 men for around 20 minutes from infringements by Mike and Matty J (that's two mentions Matty!!). Some heroic defence held the Scarboro team at bay during the whole of that period with Boro mounting the odd attack themselves. As the team was restored to 15 men, it looked as though we'd weathered the storm, but with 5 minutes to go, Scarborough scored a nicely worked try. The conversion left the score at 13-7. We had one last roll of the dice (as well as a final yellow for Isa) with a final assault on their line but we just couldn’t make it count.

However elsewhere the results board made pleasant reading last week, with a clean sweep of 'W's from the Wasps right through to the U13s. John Burridge's inimitable reports on the last two victories for the Wasps, including last week's superb 28-27 win against Mowden Park, who were three tries up at one stage, are in this issue. There is also a report on the 'A' team's 27-21win over Stockton, whilst the Lions beat Seaton Carew 22-17. The Senior Colts had no game but the Junior Colts won an invitation 5-team round robin at Darlington, involving the hosts, Canadian side Beaconsfield (from Quebec), Morpeth and Northern. Congratulations!

JUNIORS Some latest news about our U14s (Tom Seymour's age group – see today's sponsors). They now know that their opponents in the Final of the Yorkshire Bowl at West Park Leeds on 19 April are O Crossleyans. At half term Ripon stopped their unbeaten run stretching back to November, but the good news is that since then they have returned to winning ways by beating Stockton a fortnight ago and then Guisborough and Mowden Park last week. Guisborough were also our opponents at U13, U15 and U16; we won all of them with the combined scores for the four matches involving Guisborough being 186-24. Congratulations to our youngsters on a very successful weekend. Note that tomorrow the U15s are at home to Roundheigans in the semi final of the Yorkshire Cup, and that a report on the U13s 40-19 victory against Sunderland two week's ago is in the programme.
CLUB NEWS Pride of place this week goes to one Iain Bradford. He has now completed a monumental 300 appearances in the 1st XV and we offer him our sincere gratitude for his dedication and service and many congratulations on achieving this magnificent feat. To mark this landmark there will be a presentation to Brad after the match. Please stay behind for it.

Don't forget that the next riveting social event is TONIGHT – Race Night in the Function Room. And make a note that the members reunion at lunchtime before the Bridlington match on 18 April is creeping ever nearer – we have only two more games at home after this afternoon. Tempus fugit alright! The following month we have the Annual Dinner and Presentation Night at the Sporting Lodge on Friday 8 May, with the Junior Dinner the following Friday at the same venue.

Looking further ahead I can confirm that our eagerly awaited Second Annual Beer Festival will be held on Saturday/Sunday 18/19 July. If Brydon has bored the socks off you going on and on about how much he enjoyed our first attempt, you can now tell him to shut up and put his efforts in helping to promote this one!

SPONSORS I am delighted to welcome back two sponsors to our game this afternoon. There is Andrew Gloag of Gloag & Sons Ltd, a farming and contracting business based on their farm on the outskirts of Stokesley. The business has developed through a variety of agricultural activity, and having plant and equipment available for hire. The family's association with the Club started with Andrew’s father, a Scottish international, who played here in the 50s. The other sponsor also has a father-and-son association with the club – he is Tom Seymour (John’s son), who, as Dromonby Fisheries, also of Stokesley, has developed private fishing facilities across a sequence of waterways on their farmland.

REFEREE'S CORNER Unfortunately the official originally appointed to take our game this afternoon was injured last Saturday afternoon and cannot be with us. Andy Murray has now been told that his replacement is Carl Walsh from the Central Society. Carl has refereed here before but this is the first time he has taken the 1st team. I hope he enjoys the experience.