WELCOME It is a great pleasure to meet up with Old Brodleians again. And let me offer a big welcome to our visitors from Halifax. After a gap of 28 years we last met here only three years ago, when we won 30-13. In the return early in the new year we hung on for a 20-19 win but Brods missed a very kickable penalty at the death, landing only one of three penalties in the last ten minutes. I'm pretty sure we've met only five time previously, the first meeting being here in 1980/81 when the Brods players were in at the birth of a rugby legend – our team included a 17 year-old Rory Underwood.

By the way, in response to the sackful of requests I've received about their name I can tell you that Brods were formed in 1930 by a group of former pupils of Hipperholme Grammar School, endowed in the 17th Century by Matthew Brodley – hence Old Brodleians.

This league season has not started too well for our visitors, although they kicked off with a fine cup win, travelling to our neighbours Guisborough and beating them 20-12 in the Yorkshire Shield, earning a home tie against Bradford Salem in three weeks. However they then lost 23-11 at Yarnbury in their first league match before beating high-flyers York by 22-8. Unfortunately since then our visitors have lost to Bridlington, Doncaster, Hullensians and, on Saturday, to second-placed Malton & Norton, by the narrow margin of 16-20. With the game drawing to a close Brods kicked a penalty to the corner. A catch and drive resulted in a converted try and a 16–13 lead with only minutes left to play, but back came Malton to set up a ruck in the home 22m which ended with a try under the posts. .

MATCH NEWS And mention of Malton & Norton takes me back to the last time we were gathered here to watch the 1st team. Those of you who weren't here missed a very good game indeed; those of you who were here but were 30 seconds late missed a cracking try. From the Malton kick off deep into our half; the ball was moved quickly along the line until Simmo surged into Malton's half, slipped the ball to Ash who bulldozed his way into their 22 before passing to Nolly to finish off in style – 5-0 up in the blink of an eye. Five minutes later it was 12-0 when Jack converted a try by Ash. Bright start though it was midway through the half we were 12-13 behind, but seven points from the Rhys/Jack combination restored our lead going into the break. And that's the way it stayed until the final quarter, when a brace of tries from Simmo (our chunky centre, according to the Malton report!), a second from Rhys and one from Brad made the final score 43-13. to be fair this tended to skew the result; Malton had an effective scrum, an efficient line-out and some dangerous backs, and for much of the game the teams were evenly matched; the one area we were clearly on top, especially in the final quarter, was defence.

The match at Heath didn't live up to the same standard, but we did win. Mike barrelled his over the line and Jack's conversion cancelled out Heath's early penalty, allowing us to take a 3-7 lead into the second half. Tries from Aedan and Conner, with a conversion and penalty from 'Chunky Boy' Simmo gave us a final score of 15-22. The highlight of the game was a jinking run from Rhys which took him from our own in-goal area deep into Heath's half, something you should definitely watch on our website. Unfortunately we followed up this scrappy win with an even scrappier game at North Ribblesdale last week, where we had to make several late changes to the team and where despite scoring first we lost 17-3. I'm hoping the pattern repeats itself; a poor performance in defeat at Hullensians was followed by a great seven-try game at home to Malton – a poor performance in defeat at N Ribblesdale will be followed by...?

Part of the reason for our fluctuating form can be put down to team rebuilding. Seven players have made their 1st team débuts this season, most of them having come through our Junior Section, something of which we should all be very proud. There are an incredible 460 minis, midis and juniors registered with this Club, by far the largest Junior Section in the region. In North Yorkshire only York and Harrogate join us in having a full complement of age-groups. Many fine players emerge through our system, and of course many fine players are cherry-picked by other clubs...it was ever thus. I should add that we also have good working relationships with Teesside University, Middlesbrough College, Macmillan Academy and Catterick Garrison.

Unfortunately the Wasps have had only one match recently, losing 17-20 to Gateshead Having beaten Hartlepool 20-12 in their previous game our Lions entertained WHTDSOB last week. It is rumoured that West Hartlepool Technical Day School Old Boys Rugby Union Football Club is the longest club name not only in the RFU but also in the world of rugby union. Whether or not this is the case remains to be seen but fortunately they are known simply as Tech. In an even contest we eventually won 22-12 to record a fourth consecutive victory. Meanwhile the Colts enjoyed a trip to Wigton, returning with a very good 36-27 win under their belts.

A week ago the 'A' team and the Lions enjoyed a very successful Curry Night in the Club, By all accounts it was an awesome night; the mountains of curry and oceans of drinks were supplemented by lots of fun and games, emphasising the fun of social rugby.

JUNIORS A word or three about our U17s who to date have lost only one game. And to whom you may ask – to Old Brodleians, that's who! Having scored a very credible 36-27 victory over Doncaster and a good 40-17 win against Ripon, they came a cropper at Brods, something I hope the 1st team can put right today! They then continued with an impressive 36-19 win against West Park Leeds a fortnight ago. With no game last week they are geared up to meet Huddersfield tomorrow before entertaining Sheffield next Sunday.

And a word of praise to Ripon, who came here three weeks ago to meet our U16s in the Yorkshire Cup. They alerted us mid-week to difficulties they were facing in getting up a full team so we feared the worst, but they did turn up. It was quite refreshing that with a bit of wheeling dealing, and borrowing a player or two, they were able to fulfil the fixture, thus giving a group of lads a game or rugby that had looked in doubt. We are grateful for and thanked them for their efforts. It's almost incidental to report that we won.

This week I salute our U15s, who in their last four outings have posted 46 against Harrogate, 50 against Scarborough, 49 against Thirsk and then last week they beat Hull Ionians 29-17. Well done to the young men. Our U14s have a 50 per cent record, with fine victories over West Park Leeds, Acklam and Malton & Norton; tomorrow they are at Stockton. And tomorrow the U13s, who beat Acklam 52-0 last week, are at home to Otley in the Yorkshire Cup.

CLUB NEWS Get out your diaries and make a note of the our forthcoming attractions.
1 November Vice Presidents' lunch
5 November Fantastic Fireworks Display
18 December Entertaining Carol Sing-a-long
21 December Members Grand Christmas Draw
23 December 6th Annual Pie-baking competition
27 December Stockton v Middlesbrough, the Alan Todd Memorial
Match
27 December Annual Ball, Thistle Hotel, Middlesbrough

REFEREE'S CORNER I am delighted to welcome back to Acklam Park today's referee David Downham, more so because he stepped into the breech as late as Thursday evening - three weeks ago we knew who had been appointed, but we found out on Wednesday that he'd cried off, since when Andy Murray, our long-serving and ever-efficient Match Secretary, has beavered away trying to find out his replacement; thanks for your efforts Andy. David last took us against Keighley in January last year, having previously been in charge of our game with Team Northumbria. He has refereed for about 13 years, having previously been a hooker for Castleford: he is an accountant from Leeds.