Fixtures and Results 2012 - 13 Club President Wolves Vikings Hawks Ravens N1W Bateman Premier SU3S SU5E JON HITCH September 1 ANSELMIANS W Burnage L Burnage W CREWE & NANT’CH W 8 VALE OF LUNE L Macclesfield L Winnington Park W ASHTON ON M W 15 Rochdale L PRESTON GH L MOORE W Macclesfield C Welcomes 22 LIVERPOOL ST H L Vale of Lune L Marple W Whitchurch 29 Kirkby Lonsdale W LIVERPOOL ST H W BOWDON W WIRRAL October 6 LEIGH W Stockport L Altrincham Kersal W SANDBACH W 13 Manchester W FYLDE W SANDBACH D Didsbury Toc H W 20 SALE L Lymm L Hope Valley L CONGLETON W Let us welcome Wirral RUFC today. We had our first game in 1988/89 two Cheshire cup games in 27 Widnes L BIRKENHEAD PARK L WARRINGTON W 96/97 and 99/2000 ( which we lost!) before playing fairly regularly since then, winning six, drawing November 3 WIRRAL Caldy Glossop MANCHESTER two and losing four. In the last two years the honours have been even. Wirral have always been a 10 SANDBACH very well run club, since being formed in 1936 as Old Wirralians. Considering the relatively small 17 Fleetwood CHESTER WIRRAL Holmes Chapel 24 CARLISLE Altrincham Kersal Chester ACTON NOMADS area of the Wirral peninsula, there are quite a few rugby clubs but Wirral Rugby Club have always maintained a high standard running four senior teams and, like Wilmslow, a large and thriving junior December 1 8 Altrincham Kersal SEDGLEY PARK OSWESTRY Linley & Kidsgrove and mini section. 15 Vale of Lune WINNINGTON PARK Ashton on Mersey 22 29 I usually do a rant in this section about the lack of lateral thinking of the RFU in their decisions or the After Christmas this wasted money by many clubs to ‘have a go’ at ‘professionalism’ but not this time! Amazingly it is January 5 ROCHDALE league splits into Moore MACCLESFIELD 12 Liverpool St. H two seven club MARPLE Whitchurch about rugby itself! The honeymoon period with Stuart Lancaster is ending and the real crunch comes 19 KIRKBY L’DALE conferences, Bowdon in a few weeks. He inherited a good young squad and set his store on developing them for the next 26 Leigh determined by ALTRINCHAM K Sandbach whether you finish World Cup. They seem however to be falling by the wayside with injuries taking the main toll. February 2 the first half of the Reading the papers about the dearth of hookers it looks as if we might ask our Alex Donaldson to 9 MANCHESTER season in the top or Sandbach DIDSBURY TOC H 16 Sale bottom half of the HOPE VALLEY Congleton keep his boots clean just in case!!? Stuart, I think, will be struggling. 23 league. Back to the real world of our league. Wilmslow have stuttered again over the last two games. Whilst March 2 WIDNES Warrington 9 Wirral GLOSSOP Manchester deserving to lose against Sale, I thought Sale were flattered by the score and that Wilmslow played 16 well and scored some good tries. But they then came unstuck at Widnes with a very lacklustre 23 FLEETWOOD Wirral HOLMES CHAPEL 30 display albeit with several injuries and enforced positional changes. Wirral, on the other hand, had a April 6 Carlisle CHESTER Acton Nomads good hard fought result at home against Altrincham Kersal, who had inflicted the first defeat for Sale 13 ALTRINCHAM K Oswestry LINLEY & KIDSGR’E in over two years. 20 Anselmians BURNAGE Crewe & Nantwich 27 So it will be interesting today to see if Wilmslow, again injuries permitting, can attain the level of Senior Colts (U19s) and Junior Colts (U17s) their best quality rugby, which they played earlier in the season. We know though that Wirral have a Raging Bull Senior Colts League : Division A Junior Colts League : Division B well organised side which has been together for several seasons now. Seniors Juniors Seniors Juniors I could not go to the Widnes match last week so watched the Vikings and the 3rds at home and was Sep 2 Wirral L Jan 6 LIVERPOOL COLLEGIATE royally entertained by two excellent games. The Vikings just lost a very good game 38-40 against 9 LYMM L Lymm L 13 CALDY Kirkby Lonsdale Birkenhead Park. They played excellent expansive rugby with some gorgeous tries but unfortunately 16 Preston GH W SANDBACH L 20 Chester 23 SANDBACH W Stockport L 27 League Cup League Cup gifted ball to Birkenhead too often, who then used their more powerful pack to bulldoze through to 30 Stockport W STOKE ON TRENT L finally sneak a win. Both sides are in the bottom half of a very unequal league, as I have already Oct 7 Macclesfield W ORMSKIRK L Feb 3 County Cup Rd 2 County Cup commented on in a previous programme and both have suffered heavy defeats against top half sides. 14 Liverpool Collegiate L 10 WIRRAL 21 Caldy W KIRKBY LONSDALE L 17 The Vikings have an away match today against the league leaders Caldy and I fear this game will 28 24 only serve to confirm the chasm once again. Nov CHESTER March League Cup League Cup 4 Lymm LYMM 3 League Cup League Cup The other game was the 3rds against Warrington 3rds who all looked the same size ( big!) from the 11 PRESTON GH Sandbach 10 League Cup League Cup 18 County Cup Rd 1 County Cup Rd 1 17 County Cup Rd 3 County Cup hooker to the wingers! They really thought they would win but Wilmslow 3rds put in a sterling 25 24 expansive performance to stun Warrington and confirm that their position as second in the league, a 31 well merited position Dec Sandbach STOCKPORT Apr 7 League Cup League Cup 2 STOCKPORT Stoke on Trent 14 League Cup League Cup 9 MACCLESFIELD Ormskirk 21 League Cup League Cup Finally to the colts. A heroic hard fought match away at Caldy for the senior colts to win 12-13 and 16 28 League Cup Finals League Cup Finals remain equal 2nd in the league and a disappointing loss for the junior colts 14-18 against Kirkby 23 30 Lonsdale. They played really well, full of spirit but that first league victory still proves to be elusive. SALE 20th. October Saturday 20th. October 2012 North 1 West Wilmslow 26 - 53 Sale Jon Hitch Everyone knew that the visit of the part time professional side from Sale would give the Wolves their sternest 2012 - 2013 SEASON Wolves Captain Mike Black test of the season so far. By their own standards the joint league leaders had stuttered in recent weeks. Wilmslow RUFC Immediate Past President Widnes, Wirral and Carlisle had all run them close and the week before their sequence of thirty six wins had Kings Road David Barker Vice Captain Ben Day been ended by Altrincham Kersal. The grapevine had it that the riot act had been read at Heywood Road, Wilmslow Hon. Club Chairman Dave Scanlon training during the week had been ratcheted up to new levels and the team line up significantly changed. SK9 5PZ Director of Rugby Daz Lucas There was a grim faced determination as they arrived at The Memorial Ground, intent on asserting their Hon. Secretary Barry Fisher authority. Tel : 01625 522274 Club Coach Hon. Treasurer Mike Blackett Tony Kersh Wilmslow started the match on a run of three wins, which had got their season going, and there had been Team Manager Brendan Thomas hopes amongst players and supporters that they might have been able to spring a surprise. This hope was to be swiftly dissolved but to their credit the Wolves raised their game in the second half to show that they Vikings Captain Club Website could compete at the level and intensity required and in scoring four tries, something that no one else has Oliver Mooney www pitchero.com/clubs/wilmslow come near to doing against Sale in league matches for nearly two years, they earned a bonus league point to Hawks Captain Matt Tucker join the select group of clubs, who have taken something away from their meeting with Sale. Ravens Captain Coach Brendan Thomas was not at all downbeat at the outcome. He pointed out that throughout all sport Hon. President Jim Senior those clubs with the biggest budgets end up on top. We obviously don’t know what the Sale budget is but Magazine Editor and Club Press Officer : David Pike clearly it’s up to ten factors higher than Wilmslow’s and the real story was not so much the dominance of the Tel : 01625 525616 : 07886 588524 : [email protected] visitors, particularly in the first half when they just seemed quicker to everything, demonstrating pace and power, and more clinical in what they did, but whether their investment was adequately reflected in the difference between the two sides. Thomas had been forced to make unwanted late changes to the Wolves NORTH 1 WEST : line up and he felt that this had contributed to the Wolves tending to stand off in the first half and if they had Wilmslow RUFC is an http://www.rfu.com http://www.rugbyroundup.com played as they did in the second, it open community could well have been more of a based club, offering a NORTH WEST UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD INTERMEDIATE LEAGUES : contest. http://www.rfu.com game to anyone http://www.nowirul.org.uk A feature of the game was the ability coming through the of the Sale side to kick their gates from the age of SPONSORING ORGANISATIONS 2012-13 penalties into good attacking positions and to turn the screw when six upwards - with no they had the opportunity.