WELCOME It gives me great pleasure to welcome Pocklington back to Acklam Park. They've begun this season very well indeed, winning their first four games, at home to Sheffield (18-13) and O Crossleyans (24-19), away to Northern (42-20) and then at home last week to Morpeth (38-10). They are one of only three clubs with a 100 per cent record and lie third in the table behind West Hartlepool and Cleckheaton, who both have three bonus points to Pocklington's two. Last season we opened our league programme here against Pocklington, who won 20-18. They also beat us in the last game of the season, on their own patch, by 32-14. I'm hoping for a better result for us this afternoon!

We’ve met Pocklington several times before last season; the last time was in the Yorkshire Cup, here, on Sunday, 28 Feb 1993, although we were fortunate to get the match played at all. The weather was dreadful all weekend and we constantly cleared snow from our lines before the game and then played much of the second half in a hail storm. We were more attuned to the arctic conditions than our visitors, scoring three tries in each half to win 43-3.

LEAGUE RUGBY Our last home game against West turned into a strange affair. We made several enforced changes, both at selection and even during the week leading up to the game but we still dominated play for the first quarter; however we failed to take any of our scoring chances and went into the break 14-0 behind. In the second half Simon kicked a penalty but in the last quarter we really lost our way and the final score was 34-3. Last week was even worse. Availability of players continued to be a problem; as a result, for example, Simon Moore was selected in the back row but then had to move to centre. We lost quite comprehensively, not helped by losing Jack Bircham in the first five minutes, but as we did at Wheatley Hills, after a poor start we turned in a far better second half performance, with the second half score standing at 5-5 until Huddersfield crossed for a late try. Rhys Kilbride opened his account for the season with a superbly well taken try.

OTHER TEAMS Let me first say a big 'thank you' to Acklam for coming to play our Wasps last Saturday. With blank dates, although scheduled fixtures, against Blaydon, Ponteland and then Tynedale the Wasps were staring at a third consecutive blank Saturday since their opening game of the season at Horden. But late in the day Acklam agreed to step into the breach, for which we are extremely grateful. It gave us an opportunity to field a mixed team of youth and experience, as evidenced by our youthful second row of Bobby Thompson and Jonno! We won the game, playing some lively open rugby to take a 19-0 half time lead, despite playing up the hill and into the sun. It was a much more even game after the break with Acklam having more of the play than previously, although we did manage to score further tries to win 34-0. Following their 39-12 win at West Hartlepool a week earlier, the 'A' team also won on Saturday, by 36-10 away at Mowden Park in their second game of the season. It was a great win to celebrate Jake Fingland's 18th birthday, made even more memorable by the fact that the game was actually played in the stadium itself! I'm told that Jake continued his celebrations well into the night...And continuing the theme of some of our more experienced players turning out on the park, Jason Westwood played for the 'A' team, although he ended up at hospital to correct a wickedly crooked dislocated finger.

COLTS RUGBY Turning to the Colts, a fortnight ago they played their second match in two years. That's right, two years. We had no U17s last term so the coaches have had to move heaven and earth to build up numbers for this season. And although the previous week our lads played magnificently to beat Westoe, at Westoe, their opponents this time were Billingham. Do you remember the U19s Challenge Finals held here in May? The outstanding team by a country mile in the four finals that day was – yes, you've guessed it – Billingham! We lost 7-33, but lost with honour intact. We had the bare minimum of 15 players whilst Billingham turned up with 25 and most of their points were scored towards the end of the game when our lads were tiring from their massive effort. They had a blank Saturday last week but are due at Carlisle today. The Junior Colts (U17s) followed their blank week two weeks ago with a home game against Redcar last Sunday. They won quite comfortably in the end with a dominant second half performance but it certainly wasn't plain sailing in the first half. Redcar were a strong team and were leading 12-10 at the quarter stage, but we hit back to go into the break 17-12 ahead. After the turn around Redcar began to tire and although they potted a penalty we added five tries to win the game by 44-15.

JUNIORS Since the last report the U16s have beaten Doncaster in a real cliff-hanger 18-17, whilst the U14s beat Thirsk away rather more easily, by 48-0. The U15s and U13s went to Huddersfield (remember that Huddersfield U16s and U14s could not travel to us!) and lost 27-7 and 8-0 respectively. Last week's results made rather better reading. The U16s were involved in a Yorkshire Cup match at Mosborough, where they won 33-24; the U14s were at home to York and in front of an animated and noisily supportive crowd won a hugely entertaining game by 38-5 (and it was great to see an impressed Tony Allison, former 1st team captain, on the touchline watching his grandson). The U13s completed a hat-trick of teams running up 30-odd points, beating Acklam 36-0. After last week's performance against Huddersfield, our U15s were looking forward to a challenging game at home to York. Sadly they couldn't improve on the previous game's result, as they simply weren't allowed to get their own game going and allowed York too much quality ball, resulting in four clinically taken tries and one conversion by the visitors, to give them a well deserved victory by 22-0.

CLUB NEWS This evening Simon Moore has organised a Race Night in the Clubhouse, with delicious pie and peas provided by mine host Admiral Collingwood. Such events are always entertaining so if you're at a loose end see Simon after the match and get yourself a ticket. Looking further ahead, arrangements are well in hand for our fandabadozee Guy Fawkes celebrations on Tuesday 5 November. Make a note now, because either you're needed on duty that night to ensure everything goes swingingly, OR if you intend to spectate, get here early; the crowds who regularly join us for what is always a terrific show do gather pretty early. Looking backwards, the Micklewrights, Stuart and Lynn both reached a certain age this past week and celebrated with a birthday bash in the Clubhouse. The theme was 'The Fifties' – I can't imagine why! – and there were some pretty outlandish costumes. Stuart himself was dressed as Marshal Kane, Gary Cooper's part in High Noon, but pride of place is shared between two Johns – Westwood and Moore, who donned outrageous Teddy Boys suits, garish yellow and shocking pink respectively, plus six-inch beetle-crushers!

REFEREE'S CORNER I am delighted to welcome Dean Walker back to Acklam Park this afternoon. His first official visit was three years ago to take charge of our match against Stockport, although Dean's first actual visit was quite by accident – he graciously refereed our Wasps when other officials with whom he was travelling dropped him off here at Acklam Park instead of Acklam! Whatever the circumstances we are pleased to see him again today. Dean has been a referee for eight years, since retiring from playing back row and centre for Dinnington; he works in the automotive trade, supervising the clutch production line in a factory making tractors.