Month: January 2022

Last Saturday was a very special day down at Park Lane. A charity day in aid of SicKids, a big crowd and lovely conditions for playing open, fast rugby. Our opposition were old Yorkshire rival Sheffield Tigers who were lying mid table with a number of good performances coming into the second half of the season. We were looking for a big performance from the team after the frustrating win the previous week and the players did not disappoint. Eight tries, a penalty, no points against and a five point bonus point win. This 49-0 win had everything, a solid set piece platform which gave us great shape in attack and a defence that was impossible to penetrate. We opened the score in the first ten minutes with a great line break 40 metres out from hooker Matt Gallagher who off loaded to scrum half Cam Crampton who touched down […]

A geography lesson – oh great! Once upon a time, I had a work colleague and friend who lived in Glossop, and he played for the rugby club there. When the Courage Leagues started in the late 1980s, every club below the National levels was assigned a place according to geography. Historically, long before leagues, England rugby was divided into four administrative Divisions: the North comprised the six counties, three in the east (Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire) and three in the west (Cumbria, Lancashire, Cheshire). Glossop’s problem was they were not classified as Northern. Being in Derbyshire they were Midlands, and their local (not so local) league back then was Notts, Lincs & Derbys 2. Several opponents were Nottingham based, then there was Market Rasen and, worst of all, Grimsby, a hundred miles away. They had on their doorstep clubs like Ashton under Lyne, in historic Lancashire, and Marple, in Cheshire. […]

After a well deserved break over the Xmas and New Year period it was back to league action last Saturday with a difficult away game to unbeaten Rotherham Titans. We had drawn with them earlier in the season at home and this was always going to be a hard fought close game between two of the top teams in National Two. Preparations had gone well in the week and spirits were high in the squad. We started the game strongly,  with a solid scrum, an accurate line out and lovely continuity between forwards and backs constantly testing the Titans defence, in the first twenty minutes. However the Rotherham defence is one of the best in the league and we were unable to break them down, despite creating a number of chances. It was the home team who scored first, against the run of play, with a lovely chip over for […]

I applaud an act of sportsmanship by Henley Hawks, at Barnes on Dec 18th. With the score tied on 17-17, last play of the match, Henley were awarded a kickable penalty for an opponent not rolling away. It turned out that the offending player was injured and unable to move. Henley ended the game by kicking the ball into touch. Brilliant.   Last Saturday, while Sedgley were involved in a last-kick-of-match drama at Rotherham, I was watching on TV a similar event at The Stoop, where Quins converted their last-minute try to beat Exeter. Another incident in that game brought memories of one at Park Lane a few years ago. Just before half-time, Exeter’s Sam Simmons attempted to secure the ball by lifting a Harlequins leg off it, the fairly hefty leg of Joe Marler. At the same time, prop Alec Hepburn lifted the other leg, and continued lifting until […]