BERNIE COYNE BEM I must begin by offering our heartiest congratulations to Bernie on being awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. This honour is richly deserved and acknowledges that during the past 40 years and more he has made a real difference to adults and young people of all ages and abilities living in the local area through rugby union. A measure of man is the great many salutations of praise and good wishes he has received from near and far, including the RFU and YRU. There is a little more information in this issue. Well done Bernie!

WELCOME Returning to the matter in hand today, and after what seems like an even shorter than ever close season, I am delighted to welcome everyone back to Acklam Park to kick-off our league campaign in Durham Northumberland 1 at home to South Shields Westoe, a club we last met an incredible 11 years ago. Despite that barren decade we have recently developed a sort of relationship, with first Sam and now Will Seymour joining their ranks whilst at university on Tyneside. We are really sorry to lose them but I know that Sam is enjoying his tenure at Wood Terrace and I'm sure Will also be happy there. We wish them every success before they return to us – I very much hope!

As I said our last meeting was in 2008/09; it was in North 1, when we finished 6th whilst Westoe were promoted into National 2 North as champions, beating us 47-0 at home along the way, although we earned some revenge by winning the return match 12-8. Our visitors spent four years in N2N before being relegatedN3N and then two years later going down into N1E. Unfortunately Westoe dropped straight into DN1, accompanied by Northern. That was four years ago. The following season Northern and Westoe finished first and second in the table; Northern went up, Westoe did not. They then finished third to Consett and Durham City, scoring more than 1000 points in the process. Last term SSW finished fifth, with all five top teams breaking the 1000 points barrier.

LEAGUE RUGBY And so, with no need to activate the Level Transfer regulations, we join South Shields Westoe in DN1, where our derbies are all real local affairs. Our furthest away matches, on Tyneside, are all closer than our nearest opponents in Yorkshire1 last season. This provides us with the opportunity of playing Friday night fixtures, so watch out for more news on this front. The DN1 table was a tale of two halves last season, with the top five clubs all scoring more than 1000 points and the bottom three conceding more than 1000. Sadly our neighbours at Whitby won only two games to finish bottom.

PRE-LEAGUE RUGBY Our pre-season fixtures didn't exactly fall into place as expected, although we did get to play one competitive match. On Friday night a week ago a mixture of our vets and social players took on a mixed 3rd team and senior colts from Acklam and had a thoroughly enjoyable run out, ending in a busy and noisy bar packed with many familiar faces. In a match completely free of any aggro there was some confusion over the result; the consensus was that whoever did win did so by the narrowest of margins. In fact Acklam were the victors. The following day the 1st team should have travelled to Heath for a round 1 game in the Yorkshire Shield, but late withdrawals led to us crying off. Heath were very understanding; it transpired they were suffering similar problems. Although the current official line is that the match is a walkover for Heath, there is a possibility that we might be able to still play the fixture on the scheduled date, 2 November. We will keep you up to date.
TEAM NEWS both our Wasps and 'A' team will compete in the CANDY leagues this season, The Wasps in Division 1 with the 'A' team in Division 2 South. Eddie Scott is pulling together some fixtures for our Lions (4th team!). Following Wincey and Jonno's spell as managers the Wasps will be looked after by John O'Boyle, Jason Malcolm with the occasional input from Tilly – I must say it's great to see the '2 Js' back in harness again. There is also a change for the 'A' team, which has a new captain for the new campaign, the splendidly moustachioed Eric 'Yorkshire' Windross.
Turning to the Colts who are suffering from low numbers, Tony Linklater has organised a combined team with Stockton and Acklam to play in the Durham Colts leagues; training and matches will alternate between Boro and Stockton, with Tony, Richie Young, Rob Green and Simon Crozier as coaches. It's a tremendous initiative to keep young men involved in rugby, young men who might otherwise have given up the sport much too soon. I'm delighted to report that early feedback from training is extremely positive.
Next May Dunkirk celebrates 80 years since the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from the Dunkirk beaches. The celebrations include rugby tournaments and we hope to take the U14s and a Vets team to participate. Here's a question - why is the Boro twinned with Dunkirk? Because a quarter of the boats involved in this exercise sailed from the Tees.
CLUB NEWS First let me thank Colin McNeill for his stint as President of the Club, and welcome back Walter Hibbert for his second term in the role. Many people consider Presidents to be figureheads, but believe me our Presidents get through mountains of work on our behalf, something not always seen or appreciated.
There is good news about Tollesby. It seems the Middlesbrough Council is prepared to sell the site to us, which gives us not only more certainty of tenure but a much greater ability to apply to various sources of grant aid, something not available for short-term rented property. Self-help groups of parents have done some work to improve the pavilion and floodlights should be erected shortly, such work being part of our plan to create a Junior Rugby Academy based at the site. This fits hand-in-glove with our proposals to employ a Junior Rugby Development Officer in partnership with our major sponsors and Middlesbrough Council. The JRDO will work with schools, supporting teaching staff with coaching whilst developing and organising programmes for rugby camps and inter-school tournaments, encouraging schools and their pupils to take up the sport hopefully inspiring more youngsters to join the Club. With little rugby being played in schools a strong junior section is crucial to our future.
I am pleased to report that our 6th ANNUAL BEERFEST at the end of July was another great success; the Exotic Gin Bar had to be re-stocked several times and the Roast Hog was much appreciated and did a roaring trade, A huge 'thank you' to everyone who came along and joined us over the two days, and to the hard-working Hawaiian Beach Boys behind the bar who made sure we were all served promptly. Our very first MIDSUMMER BALL here at Acklam Park on Saturday 22 June was also a huge success. Our thanks to Lee Featherstone for his early efforts in initiating the event in the face of some uncertainty, and to Keith Bircham for then pulling the pieces together. Next year's event is already in our social diary so make a note of the date – 20-6-20! Yet another new event for you, just a little earlier in our calender is LADIES DAY on 12 October. See the notice board for details.
And now join with me in sending our best wishes for a speedy recovery to our former 1st team hooker Jeff Coleman, who has had a triple-heart bypass in Norway, where he now lives. Jeff is in the team photograph in this issue, in the front row, on one knee and with a beard.