WELCOME It gives me great pleasure to welcome Gateshead back to Acklam Park. Two seasons ago Gateshead finished in sixth place with 14 wins and a draw but they scored a hugely impressive 942 points. Last year they didn't fare quite so well, finishing in 10th place, during which we won both our games, 43-3 here at Acklam Park and 26-16 at Eastwood Gardens.

This season our visitors had a great start. They opened with a 44-20 Cup win at home to Rovers, followed by four wins from four league games, beating Stockton, Barnard Castle, Westoe and then Gosforth to go top of the table as the only club with a 100 per cent record. Then, at home to Hartlepool they lost 27-29, just failing to extend this to five from five. Going into the last 20 minutes they were winning 27-0. They must have felt that it was game over, but Hartlepool clawed their way back into the game and won in injury time. A second defeat followed at Consett. It was a tight game with nothing between the teams for the majority of play. Consett scored first but they led by only 19-17 at the break and 26-20 going into the final stages. Two yellow cards didn't help Gateshead and the match finished 38-25. Last week they entertained Medicals and were always behind in the game, finally losing 29-13.

LEAGUE RUGBY Our last home game was against Stockton three weeks ago. It was a typical local derby, all tense and scrappy, but consider two facts; Stockton came without a win all season, and we ran in six tries, our highest tally of the season. Sounds easy? It was not. Hats off to our visitors, they scored three points almost from the kick-off and then for much of the first half they kept us on the back foot with the lions share of possession and territory. However after six minutes we leading 14-3 and by half time we were 19-6 ahead. Long range tries first by Sean and then a kick-through by Conner settled our nerves, with Adam adding a third just before the break. Stockton added a third penalty but a second try from Conner and one from Ross McNeill stretched our lead to 29-9. That seemed comfortable enough but Stockton scored two late tries; fortunately Mike also crossed the line and with Matty kicking his third conversion the final score was 36-23. His try meant that all our back five, Nos 11 to 15, touched down; in our previous home game all our tries against Novos were scored by forwards.

Last week at Barnard Castle despite leading twice through an Adam Nolson try and a Matty penalty we were pegged back on both occasions and trailed 18-8 before a Conner try converted by Matty trimmed the gap but the home side pulled further away with two tries in the last five minutes to put a gloss on the score.

OTHER MATCHES In between those league games we won our Yorkshire Shield tie at Scarborough by 25-12. They'd thumped Acklam 68-8 the week previous so we weren't sure what to expect. We defended heroically for the first quarter but then Matty slotted two penalties to settle our nerves. He then converted a try by Conner, with Liam Baxter wrapping up the half by finishing off a spectacular backs move to score in the corner. The second half was disrupted shortly after kick off when a home player broke his leg. It took 15 minutes to move onto another pitch, which upset our rhythm and our hosts scored twice from driving mauls, but we tied up the win with a late try under the posts from Mike, converted by Matty. The victory gives us a home Quarter Final against Hullensians on 25 February, with a guaranteed home semi final to follow if we triumph. The game saw the 1st team début of Colt Marcus Lang, joining his brothers Ally and Gareth in our colours. His 2nd row partnership with Lewis Allan was outstanding, and their joint age is a mere 34! Colt Josh Regan also made his début; our young men have certainly come up trumps these past two seasons. Myles put in another storming performance, being just pipped for Man of the Match by Conner.

The Wasps had a week off when we played that Yorkshire Shield match, but reports by Jonno on our games at Morpeth and than Blaydon IIs are in this issue. Our 'A' team has suffered from lack of people as the mounting number of unavailable players throughout the Club, but I'm pleased to say that they have fulfilled their fixtures, dogged to the last despite suffering some pretty heavy losses as they wait for matters to improve.

Our Colts deserve special praise, having won through their first challenges in the National and Yorkshire Cup competitions. Drawn at Hull Ionians in the National Cup they were 31-7 ahead at half time before completing the game 47-12 winners. They entertained West Park Leeds in the Yorkshire Cup the following week, a team with lots of quality and experience and expected to provide a very real tough test...and they did. Nevertheless we again triumphed, 25-12, despite being down to 13 men at one stage. Jason Malcolm has reports on both games

JUNIORS It was Cup rugby all round two weeks ago. Our U15s were at home to Malton & Norton, who'd beaten Sandal 68-0 the week before. Our lads have not had the best start to the season, although they have played all four Yorkshire Cup semi finalists already, but are settling down into the rhythm they enjoyed last season. They lost to M&N, but only on the away team rule; the score was 7-7, and the Malton coach was effusive in his praise of the game and our performance...the best game of junior rugby he'd seen all season, he said. Our U16s scored another away success, beating Percy Park 33-5, whilst our U14s put in a very commendable shift against Billingham before losing 10-20.

CLUB NEWS You will remember that in the summer of 2015 our Ginja Ninja, Sam Gaudie, went to Quebec to play for Beaconsfield, following their visit to Tees Valley earlier that season. Sam made a huge impression in Canada and was partly responsible for a marked upsurge in Beaconsfield's fortunes. Charlie Bircham followed Sam to Beaconsfield this year. Such is our relationship that the Canadians are returning to us this season. They will use Acklam Park as their base, playing our combined U16s/17s on 2 January with other fixtures to be arranged.

Next Saturday night will see our renowned and Kolourful Kaleidoscope of Fireworks and Bonfire Night, yes, that's right, a bonfire! Without one last year because we'd just laid new cables to the floodlights the bonfire is back! Also look out for our 8th Annual Pie-baking Competition, the Members Grand Christmas Draw, our Entertaining Carol Sing-a-long, our first Magical Mystery Show and a wonderful Choral Evening. Our Annual Dinner and Ball has been re-arranged for Friday, 30 December. And there are the first Acklam Park Grand Christmas Tournaments for pool, darts and dominoes – entry lists are on the Notice Board. We'll also try to fit in another karaoke night if at all possible...phew!

Congratulations to the Acklam cyclists, led by Steve Elsworth and Howard Thompson, who raised £1,650 for the James Cook Heart Unit. They journeys took them through Spain and France, up to Edinburgh, and finished two weeks ago cycling around rugby clubs in Billingham, Hartlepool and Stockton, finishing here at Acklam Park, where we donated £30 towards their cause.

SPOTLIGHT ON CONSTELLATION ACKLAMIUS PARKIUM
There are many STARS in this constellation, but today let me concentrate on just three. In no particular order they are Kieran Jones, Peter Riley and Andy Murray.
At our Players' Awards Ceremony in May Kieran was voted the 'A' Team's Player of the Year. The award was richly deserved but he is struggling to find display space for the trophy. Kieran is also a Full Contact Kick Boxer who beat a Frenchman last month to win his second European title. He also has two Northern Area titles, two English titles, one British title and one Five Nations title. To reach these heights he trains 6 to 10 times a week, whilst holding down a full time job! He is in Florence for the World Unified Championships this week; would you believe he has had to rely on his employer to sponsored his travel costs! We wish him the best of luck and hope he returns with even more silverware.

The other two stars in our firmament, Peter and Andy, have succeeded in bringing opera to Guisborough via rugby. Andy became an avid fan of Opera Nova when he was coerced along to one of their concerts by Peter, a singer in the group. Andy is a councillor and chairman of Guisborough Town Council; with his support and determination Opera Nova are performing 'Angels and Demons' in Guisborough TONIGHT, at St Nicholas Church. But via rugby? YES! Peter is a former Club Captain, President, Treasurer and is an Honorary Life Member. Andy has been a member for almost 40 years as a player, Team Secretary and then as an outstandingly efficient Match Secretary. I'm delighted that both are still very active members of MRUFC.

REFEREE'S CORNER It gives me great pleasure to welcome Jim Saunders back to Acklam Park. He has been a referee for 14 years, and his last visit (which was also his first visit!) was two years ago for our match with York. In his playing days he played on the wing for the Army and at No 7 and hooker for the Royal Horse Artillery. Jim is from Grimsby and is self-employed, being a Director of his own flooring company. I hope he enjoys himself today.