BOB MURRAY MBE Despite turning 90 in December Bob was always at Acklam Park on match days, regularly attending our lunches and games. But sadly, no more; after a short illness he died earlier this month. He was 26 years old when he joined this Club, moving to Teesside with ICI from Welwyn Garden City, where he played county rugby for Hertfordshire. A lock forward he played alongside his twin brother Tom in the county team and for us, before taking up refereeing. The word is that when he took up the whistle he clamped down severely on many of the activities, which as a player he had been quietly and successfully adept! He was a wonderful character, a big genial Irishman, always with a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his face. He will be sorely missed and our condolences go to son Graham, daughter Jane and the rest of the family. Hopefully we will see a great performance of exciting rugby in his memory.

WELCOME Inevitably the game will go on, and I am pleased to offer the players and supporters of Selby a very warm welcome, much warmer than the recent weather! Last season our visitors finished in eleventh place in the table with 37 points from their 26 matches. This campaign they currently lie in twelfth position with 28 points from 22 games and are in a ding-dong battle to avoid relegation. North Ribb are 2 points behind them with a game in hand, but have fixtures against the teams in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places.

Selby's season didn't get off to a good start. They lost their first 8 league matches before beating
Wheatley Hills, but then lost their next 5 games. However since their 2nd victory, against Bradford Salem in January, they have chalked up 3 more wins, including a 27-14 win against 4th placed Heath; but home supporters please note – two weeks ago our visitors ran top dogs York very close, being 7-3 up at half time before losing 7-10 to earn a bonus point. Today we hope for an exciting try-fest, the like of which we saw at Selby in November – thirteen tries in all, 7 in the first half, 6 after the break, 7 by us (all converted by Andy), 6 by our hosts (only one converted). Selby took a 5-0 lead but at half time the score was 15-28 and 32-49 at no-side. Let us hoipe for something similar today.

LEAGUE RUGBY First let me confirm that our rearranged league fixture at home to Moortown will be played (weather permitting!) next Saturday. It is Easter weekend and we did offer our opponents the opportunity to play on Good Friday but they declined. Incidentally our Yorkshire Shield semi final at either N Rishworthians or Hullensians has now been scheduled for 28 April.
In our last match a fortnight ago we beat Keighley for the 3rd time this season; it was also our 11th win in 12 league outings. Keighley took a 3-0 lead but couldn't add to their score despite strong pressure (and great defence from us) in the second period. Sean Moloney scorched over for two tries before the break, with Matty Todd, who wasn't called up until Saturday morning, added a third in the second half before Keighley really made a concerted effort to get back into the game. AB converted all three tries for a 3-21 result.
Our previous match was an exciting affair resulting in a 36-22 victory over Beverley. We played aggressive attacking rugby in the first half to take a dominant 22-5 half time lead, opening our account when Sean Moloney touched down after one of his trademark scything runs from our own half. Beverley equalised before AB kicked a penalty and then converted tries from Conner, after one of his sniping darts through the opposition, and Euan, who applied the final touches to a burst up field from Pete. An early second half try from Pete – one of his wonderfully mesmerising runs from our half – gave us a 22 point lead. But then our opponents showed why they are in second spot in the table. They responded with a sense of purpose and intensity which forced us onto the back foot. Their attack got on top and they scored three more tries, which, with another AB penalty, took the score to 30-22 with ten minutes remaining. The score was now worrying close, but determination, bravery, commitment and sheer cussedness won the day. Unbowed, we forced Beverley into mistakes and two penalties from AB cemented our 14th league win of the season.
OTHER GAMES I'm relieved to report that last week, despite the weather, the Wasps were able to play Billingham in their CANDY Cup semi-final, and delighted to confirm that they scored four tries to win 26-5 to advance into the final against Alnwick. A match report by Jonno appears on p4 of this issue. They should be playing at Barnard Castle today but Barnies cried off on Wednesday. Four week's ago the 'A' team had three opponents! Their scheduled fixture was against Bishop Auckland, who cried off on Wednesday. The lads then picked up a game against West Hartlepool but they pulled out on Friday. Our thanks to Northallerton who then stepped into the breach and even came to us. It was a good game. We were 5-0 ahead at half time, eventually winning 19-5. They followed up with their 14th win of the season, 31-0 against Guisborough. The Colts followed their emphatic victory at Ilkley with a rearranged match at home to Wharfedale. We started too slowly, but got more and more into the game as it progressed. We lost 26-31, but had there been just another few minutes to play we might just have won the spoils. Tom is now arranging a few fixtures for a mixed U16s/U17s team, the first of which was against Guisborough, which the lads won quite convincingly, with young Tom Worral scoring a hat trick of tries. The second should have taken place last Sunday at home to Sunderland but fell victim to the weather.

CLUB NEWS First allow me to extend our very best wishes to John Blott, Derek English and Chris Cummins, all of whom have suffered some serious illnesses. In John's case he was actually in hospital for a scheduled visit when he collapsed, luckily resulting in immediate attention. I hope they all make a full recovery.

Congratulations to two of our young Colts who are playing in the Northern U17s County Championship. Joe Sawdon is playing for Durham U17s whilst Ben Blythe is playing for Yorkshire. Our very best wishes to both young men for continued success.

And congratulations to our hard working Team Secretary, Andy Murray. He is part of a small team within the Club examining and developing bids to raise finance for a number of schemes. He is also a local councillor for Guisborough and chairman of the Guisborough Town Hall Gateway Project. And WOW! The Heritage Lottery Foundation has approved a bid he prepared and submitted for £2m to completely restore the 1821 town hall into an iconic facility for Guisborough. It will also see the creation of 42 full time jobs. Well done Andy; something similar for Acklam Park/Tollesby would be very welcome!!

Oh, and apologies to Phil Wall. I saw him in the car park a couple of weeks ago and remonstrated that I hadn't seen him on the pitch recently. There was a good reason, he said; he is the father of triplets! Many, many, many congratulations Phil. It's great news, but gosh, what a busy and exciting time lies ahead...

REFEREE'S CORNER I am particularly pleased to welcome our referee today, John Smith, who is a first-time visitor to Acklam Park. That's not the only thing which sets John apart from our usual referees; he is only 19 years old but he has already been a referee for three years. Impressively he is on the SRU Panel and a member of the Scottish National Development squad; it's pretty obvious he is a rising star. John was a hooker at Ross High School in Tranent, East Lothian, located just east of Musselburgh, and is a kitchen designer. I hope he enjoys the experience of joining us this afternoon.