Articles by sedgleyparktigers

I had intended watching Sedgley 2s on Saturday, and taking a few action shots, but I was unwell all weekend and never made it to the club at all. It was probably just as well, as Sedgley had fifty points put on them by Chester in their cup match. The 3s won at Holmes Chapel, but the 4s had to concede. Covid has eaten away at the fringes of our game. We were turning out four teams, and occasionally five, before the pandemic. Instead of real-life rugby, I spent Saturday watching super-efficient Saracens beating Newcastle Falcons, for whom Iwan Stephens (son of Colin) was not playing, while keeping up with Sedgley’s progress via ST on Rolling Maul. The fairytale game had been on Friday evening, when Harlequins came from 0-21 down, and 7-24 at half-time, to beat Bristol 52-24. Unbelievable game, fabulous rugby to lift the spirits. I rounded off […]

We are holding a Fireworks display at the Club on November 5th, organised by the EBBC. Club will be open at 6pm and the display will take place at 7:30pm. Tickets are £12 for families and £5 for Adults. Bar will be open sellng the normal things, lus Gluhwien and Mulled Wine. There will be speciality Food served from 6pm. Sweet and Confectionary stall for kids.

Last Saturday we entertained Bournville in our second home game of the season. They are new to National League rugby after being promoted from the lower leagues. A young, dynamic side who look to play expansive rugby at every opportunity. They had started the new season well with three big wins, one loss and the top try scoring team in the league, so this was always going to be a hard fought encounter. We had trained well during the week, spirits were high as this was a special game for two of the players. Winger Sam Lowthion was playing his 100th league game for the club and fly half Steve Collins his 200th game. A wonderful achievement for two fantastic club men. The game started well with both teams looking to establish territory and possession during the early exchanges. Our Kick chase was excellent enabling us to put pressure onto […]

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 […]

As those of you who attended the last home game will have noticed, the Matchday Programme has gone digital. As part of our effort to become Carbon Neutral as a club, the decision was taken to stop printing our Matchday Programme, but offer it online to download. Our sponsors will also be advertised on the screens throughout the Club on Matchdays. If you wish to look at the match programme, it can be downloaded from the website. You can find all the prgrammes on this link: Matchday Programmes There is also a QR Code available on Matchdays to directly download the Programme. We would welcome any comments on how we can improve this matchday service. Please send your thoughts to MatchdayProgramme@sprufc.co.uk.

It is my ambition this winter to develop my photographic knowledge and techniques. I have the equipment: an old but excellent Canon 40D SLR, and two brilliant lenses, a big and heavy 100-400mm, which I bought specifically for cricket, and now a lightweight 70-200mm. All I need to do now is to learn how to use them in a rugby context, to get a bit better than okay-ish. I have been watching instructional videos on YouTube, not least Mark Kerton, who specialises in soccer. Well worth watching just for the entertainment and insight into the mind of a professional, even if I cannot quite duplicate all his settings with my equipment. You need also to be able to ‘read the game’, to a degree, but I have been around rugby for about 67 years now, since my first games as an eleven year old at Bradford GS, so I reckon […]

An interesting development, this green, paperless match programme. Previously, I had a mind’s picture of my potential reader: a guest sitting down to enjoy the pre-match lunch; or someone standing on the touchline terrace trying to kill ten minutes at half-time. Now, I’m not so sure, but I have been asked to carry on and, for now, I will keep these Diaries to the same length as before. However, it should now be possible to link photos and other stuff. I took a set of action shots at Wharfedale, which were not very good – though the game was excellent – and last Sunday I covered the Junior Colts’ Lancashire Cup game, where the reverse was true. The game was too one-sided to be enjoyable (though in Sedgley’s favour, thankfully), but my photos were much improved. You can view these pictures by clicking on the link below: Wharfedale and Junior […]