WELCOME It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to Acklam Park this afternoon. First of all it is a massive honour to offer the warm hand of friendship to the President of Yorkshire, Paul Govier and his wife Enid. Paul is a Wharfedale man whom we met at Malton a month ago and it's a pleasure to see him and Enid at Yorkshire's most northerly outpost! We hope you both enjoy your afternoon with us.

It's also great to see so many familiar faces at our reunion, people who look so at home with a pint in their hand, reminiscing about thunderous tries that included at least three audacious side-steps and four explosive hand-offs, all from the halfway line – or was that two metres (sorry, yards!), the days when what went on in the scrum stayed in the scrum, and each team included an enforcer – ah, the good old days! My sincere hope is that you don't wait until our next reunion to come back and see us. On the subject of former players, I urge you take a look at the photograph on p16 of our Colts team in our 1972-73 centenary season. The photo is courtesy of Edytha Bowles; Vernon is standing in the back row, and the captain was their son Andrew. Next to Vernon is our current President Stu Micklewright. But what about those hairstyles?! They weren't all wearing wigs were they?

To cap it all, to celebrate our last home match of the season we are as pleased as Punch to welcome Cleckheaton, the league leaders and newly crowned champions, something they guaranteed by beating Morpeth 45-0 last Saturday. Despite being docked five points they have collected a noteworthy 105 points, 19 more than second-placed Huddersfield YMCA, losing only twice – both times to Huddersfield. In offering our visitors many congratulations on an outstanding season, can I just point out that it would do our league position no harm at all if those two defeats became three today!

LEAGUE RUGBY What a cracking game of rugby we saw last time we were gathered here. Rochdale were flying high, having lost only six of 22 matches, but we played some of our best rugby of the season to run out very worthy 22-9 winners. Although our opponents' website states this was a game where Rochdale appeared to be well in control for the first twenty five minutes but a couple of refereeing decisions swung the game in Middlesbrough’s favour, their President sent an email saying “A great performance from your boys on the day gave you a well-deserved result. Good luck with the rest of your season.”

In what what was our best performance of the season we defended heroically in the first quarter to concede only two penalties, before taking the game by the scruff of the neck and dominating affairs with three tries before half-time. Michael Thornburn scored in the corner before Richard Metcalfe put in a bullocking run and charging over. Just before half-time a shuddering tackle by Bellers saw the ball run loose and it was kicked on for Rhys to score. In a dominant second half Simmo broke through to score under the posts and add the conversion.

Unfortunately we lost our momentum at Driffield last week. Although our opponents fielded what they said was their strongest team of the season who knows what would have happened had we taken that oh-so nearly early lead. We now have a real job on our hands, but I'm sure we can do it.

CUP RUGBY Congratulations to our 'A' team; last week they eased their way gently into the final of the Tees Valley Merit League Cup Final by beating Billingham 45-5. They will meet Darlington Mowden Park IIIs in the final on 29 April, probably here. Meanwhile our Lions will play their Semi Final of the North Yorkshire Trophy away at Northallerton next Saturday.

Our U16s played some great rugby at home to West Park Leeds in the Semi Finals of the Yorkshire Cup, a couple of weeks ago but were pipped by a very good team. Hopefully our U15s can go one better when they play Sheffield in the Final of the Yorkshire Plate on 13 April at West Park Leeds. Our best wished to them with the hope that they return with some silverware. Our U14s lost in the final of the Harrogate Festival, whilst our U10s were in cup action in the Durham Cup at Redcar a couple of weeks a go, and reached the semi finals for the first time of asking - see p9 for Lee Walker's comments on the games.

CLUB NEWS I'm delighted to report that the Club has been awarded the RFU Whole Club Accreditation certificate, which I hope we will have in time for presentation today by the Yorkshire President.

Let me congratulate and thank Glenis Wright for organising our first 'Ladies Day' a fortnight ago. Of course she had help – in the wings husband Mike put in a good shift and Bill Blakey of Kaefer C&D Ltd immediately agreed to sponsor the event as soon as he heard about it – but all events need a steady hand on the tiller and there's no one more reliable than Glenis. It sold out long ago and 75 ladies enjoyed a fabulous buffet lunch with drinks. The raffle included an amazing array of prizes donated from local hairdressers, garden centres, beauty therapists, restaurants, the local gym and friends from the Rugby Club. Their generosity and kindness was quite overwhelming. The auction after the match was a dazzling success, with auctioneer Richard Storry working his socks off, selling amongst other items a voucher for a bespoke jacket for £160, a signed photograph of Leicester's British Lions for £75 and a magnum of vodka for £70. In total the day raised £2,900 for the Spinal Injuries Association, a magnificent achievement. With first team ties being presented and two sets of sponsors present the atmosphere was fantastic and a great day was enjoyed by all. A final word from Glenis – a great big thank you to our major sponsor, Bill Blakey and to the Rugby Club for hosting the event.

Incidentally whilst the 1st team was beating Rochdale the Lions were hosts to Whitby IIs; Jonno started in the second row but finished at fly half. Tilly pulled on a shirt again and played alongside his brother from Barnsley. We still lost. Can I wish 'bon voyage' to our U17s, who leave on Tuesday for their tour to Biarritz, which will include a training session with the Biarritz development side, two games and tickets for the Dax v Lyon match. And make a note that we have an U25s game at Hartlepool Rovers on 10 May.

OUR YOUNG 'OLD BOYS' On Wednesday eight of our former players took part in the RFU AASE finals (Achieving Academic and Sporting Excellence – ie colleges attached to Academies). Dan Osborn, Lorcan O'Donnell, Nathan Newbould, Sam Gaudie, Tom Burridge, Lewis Boyce, Jack McPhillips and Josh Bainbridge all participated; they are all now linked to either Newcastle or Leeds; quite a record for one club. Meanwhile Zach Kibirige is in the news again, but for the wrong reason – in the starting line-up for the first time he broke his leg playing for the Falcons at Gloucester two weeks ago.

SPONSORS What can I say about today's sponsor, Ian Horton of Hertel UK that hasn't been said already. I'm just delighted that we caught him on one of the few days he is here in Blighty, although looking at him you do wonder how – or why – he was allowed to slip through immigration control back into the country.

REFEREE'S CORNER I am delighted to welcome Steve Penfold back to Acklam Park today. I think he last took charge here early last season when we played Durham City. Steve is an ex-army man who went to Cranfield University, playing rugby for the University, REME and the Army U21s at hooker. He has been a referee for about 17 years and is now studying at Leeds to be a lawyer. I hope he enjoys his time with us this afternoon.

NB: ANNUAL DINNER & PRESENTATION EVENING @ THE Sporting Lodge, Friday 2 May. For tickets see your team captain, Simon Moore, Don Brydon or Richard Ward
And finally, as another season draws to a close, I hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing summer, and return next season full of enthusiasm to support your team, wherever we end up.