Ionians playing squad for 2015/16 – to date.
Props – Steve Johnson, Dave Laverick, Steve Quigley, Josh Thundercliffe, Josh Bayford, Joe Raddings, Albert Thundercliffe.
Hookers – Ali Thomson, Ali Forth, Pat Carty, Aiden Calvert.
2nd Rows – Joe Makin, Rob Kench, Ed Falkingham, Emanuel Harmatiuk, Danny Paul.
Back Row – Laurence Cowen, Joe Sanders, Alex Torkington, Santiago Socino, Danny Hague, Mark Wigham, Phil Eggleshaw.
Scrum- half’s – Adam Thomas, Isaac Green
Fly half’s – James Ferguson, Ben Smith, Greg Lound.
Centres – Joe Barker, Ben Winterburn, Luke Thundercliffe, Joe Martin, Sam Forbes, Alex Crockett, Joe Allott, Alex Benson
Wingers – Sam Wilson, Steve Slingsby, Aquile Smith, Danny Brough
Full backs – Mike Bateman, Keane Naylor.

Clubs in a small Island.

This week - Blackheath
Unlike Ampthill and us, Jonny-cum- lately country bumkin interlopers, Blackheath are the real deal. The oldest club in the land, Blackheath originally accepted a covenant to play, given by King John in 1130, when Lord Blackadder inadvertently invented the game by throwing a turnip to Baldrick and his chums to fight over on local common land.
The game and club were not formalised until 1858 when, exceedingly optimistically given the lack of potential opposition, Blackheath Football Club was founded by some of the old boys of the school as an open club, and so was born the first rugby club in the world without restricted membership.
Blackheath decided to pioneer its own code of rules, these included the famous Rule 10 which said that, “Though it is lawful to hold any player in a scrummage, this does not include attempts to throttle or strangle, which are totally opposed to the principles of the game”, thus adhering to the belief that rugger is a game for thugs played by gentlemen.
Blackheath is steeped in the sporting history of England. It is remarkable that no less than four separate clubs, each the first independent club, covering the four different sports of Golf, Hockey, Athletics and Rugby, were all founded in or near Blackheath. All are still in existence, all are still unaffiliated.
Club finished a very creditable 6th in N1 last season; long serving back rower Dave Allen was again the driving force in the forwards and full back Mike Canty the leading try scorer.
Our first encounter with Blackheath was at the Rectory field in November 2013 which ended in a 32 – 16 defeat and a similar fate and score occurred in the fixture at Brantingham Park. I’s took the lead in both games, a rarity in that season, hopefully we can finish in front this time out.