Year: 2021

At this last league game of 2021, there should be memories of a whole year of games. There aren’t, of course, because of…well, we all know why. We are fortunate to have had a very promising half-season behind us. Great credit to all behind the scenes at Sedgley for keeping the club going, for keeping the players and even improving the squad, and for the various ground and clubhouse improvements during our enforced rest from the game. My particular thanks go to the players of the 1st XV for the quality of entertainment, and for their obvious pride in wearing the jersey. Guts, as well as flair. The league is beginning to take shape, with the top five pulling away, and Fylde indeed just about hanging on in that five. There are some tough battles to come (we hope, and no return to lock-down) and every game is a potential […]

Last Saturday we were playing our eighth away game of the season with a late 4pm kick off against Loughborough Students. With a number of key players missing and debut appearances for the young Alex Bemba and Max Jackson this turned out to be a great performance from the Tigers. Playing on the fast artificial pitch we started strongly gaining territory, keeping possession, producing quick ball which resulted in a well worked score for Steve Collins within the first six minutes. Our shape in attack was excellent, moving play left and right constantly stretching the students defence. A scrum deep in their 22 saw captain Matt Riley make a powerful line break which resulted in scrum half Jacob Tansey touching down. Steve added the conversion and we were up 12-0 after 25 minutes. This was followed quickly with a third try of the afternoon for winger Rhys Henderson who collected […]

Last Saturday we were playing our 13th game of the season at home to Tynedale. Recent results had gone the way of the opposition who saw themselves as our bogey team winning the last four games. They had a mixed start to the campaign and were lying mid table. Conditions on the day were atrocious with a gale force wind, driving rain and standing surface water putting the actual playing of the game in doubt. We played up the slope into driving rain in the first half which should have made handling a bit of a lottery. Despite this, our first score was excellent, as winger Jamie Harrison came into the back line, outstripped the cover defence and touched down on the right. Converting the try was impossible in the conditions but we were now up 5-0 after five minutes. Our attack was phenomenal considering the weather and we were […]

Watching a game on TV the other day I was alarmed to see a referee penalise a player for tackling his opponent in the air. This was not the usual scenario, the leap to get first to the high ‘bomb’, but a back running with the ball in an orthodox passing move. What happened on this occasion, was that the man inside the ‘victim’ had passed inaccurately, causing his teammate to stretch upwards, so at the instant his opponent hit him, he was off the ground – only a few inches, but yes, he was airborne. It made me think, that when a player runs with the ball he spends at least half of the time out of contact with the ground. I think it’s a lot more than half, actually. I did a bit of surfing of athletics sites and, typically, a top sprinter will have a stride-length of […]

Last Saturday we were on the road in our twelfth game of the season to play old rivals Chester. After the disappointment of the previous two weeks we wanted to put in a winning performance and that is exactly what transpired. Conditions on the day were not favourable for open rugby with  a bitterly cold gale force wind blowing across the pitch. Chester started strongly with a good try for their left winger after a missed tackle in the centre putting them 0-7 up in the first five minutes. Despite this our shape in attack was excellent and our set piece in both the scrums and lineouts was solid. After putting a lot of pressure on the Chester defence by attacking both sides of the breakdown, No 8 broke left to feed winger Jamie Harrison and gave us the 1st try. Steve Collins added the conversion and we were back […]

In these unprecedented times, there is another way Members and friends can help out the Club finances. For many years now, we have been running a “200 Club”. The aim is to get 200 people to put in £4 / month into a Club “lottery”. There will then be cash prizes paid out each month and the remainder of the money will go into Club Funds. At present we have around 120 Members of the “200” Club and are looking to expand this up to the 200 target. If you could spare £4 / month, we would be delighted to enrol you in the 200 Club and you will be in line for monthly prizes of £100, £50 and £25. There is an additional prize of £250 every 6 months (2 per year, drawn in June and December). If we can get the numbers up to 200, we can increase […]