PROGRAMME £2 AMPTHILL V. DONCASTER KNIGHTS 25TH JANUARY 2020 KICK OFF 1.45PM PRIMARY PARTNER SENIOR PARTNERS Primary Partner: Ampthill & District Community Rugby Club Limited Senior Partners: Dillingham Park, Woburn St, Ampthill, Bedford, MK45 2HX www.ampthillrufc.com Tel: 01525 403303 Vat Reg No. 196 7536 11 Registered in England and Wales 00629333 WELCOME Chairman’s welcome to Doncaster Knights RUFC This is another historic day at Ampthill. Our guests today are Doncaster Knights RFC who visit Ampthill for a first competitive fixture. We extend a warm welcome to the players, officials and supporters to Dillingham Park today. Two individuals are very well known to Ampthill. The first is former Ampthill favourite, big Joe Sproston. Joe left us in 2015 to join Doncaster where he still playstoday. Over the 2016/17 season he suffered injuries which caused him to have a stuttering year but he now seems to be back to full strength and featured in 24 appearances last year. Welcome back Joe. The second is Director of Rugby Mr Clive Griffiths who spent a short time coaching at Ampthill in 2009. Clive started his playing career at Welsh side Llanelli RFC, before a move to rugby league with St. Helens and Salford. Also representing Wales in both types of rugby, Clive spent 10 years as coach to the Welsh rugby league team, twice taking them to the semi-final stage of the World Cup and winning the European Championship for the first time in 57 years. The 64-year- old has a wealth of coaching experience and most notably was part of the set up as the Welsh rugby union side prepared for the 2003 World Cup and Home Nations campaigns. Our season must be described as rather up and down! After a sensational win against Coventry at the Grange Jaguar-Land Rover Bowl we travelled to Ealing Trailfinders. The least said about that the better. Ealing looked scintillating in attack, powerful in defence and very professional in everything they did. When a team playing at the top of their game meet another who, quite frankly looked far from their best, the score line tells the story. Having said that, we somehow gained a losing bonus point! Today is another day. Let us get behind the boys and show all of our visitors the “mob roar” from the banking. This year was always going to be difficult, we all knew that, but our team have risen to the challenge (in some cases beyond our wildest dreams)! Have a great day. Come on you A’s. Alex Radley - Chairman, Ampthill and District RUFC 2 Saturday 25th January 2020 Ampthill & District RUFC v Doncaster Knights ACHIEVEMENTS PRESIDENT NATIONAL 1 LEAGUE WINNERS 2018-2019 Pat Sherry [email protected] NATIONAL 1 4TH PLACE 2017-2018 NATIONAL 1 3RD PLACE 2016-2017 CHAIRMAN Alex Radley NATIONAL 1 4TH PLACE 2015-2016 [email protected] NATIONAL 2 PROMOTION PLAYOFF WINNERS 2014-15 CHAIRMAN OF MINI & YOUTH NATIONAL 2 NORTH RUNNERS-UP 2014-15 James Wiggett NATIONAL 2 SOUTH 2013-2014 RUNNERS UP ChairmanMiniYouth@ ampthillrufc.com LEAGUE WINNERS 2012/13 HONORARY SECRETARY WINNERS OF EAST MIDLANDS CUP FINAL 2012 Ian Titman LEAGUE WINNERS 2009/10 [email protected] LEAGUE WINNERS 2008/09 TREASURER CUP WINNERS 2004/05, 2006/07 Bill Warfield CUP RUNNERS-UP 2005/06 [email protected] RED CIRCLE CUP 1998/99 DIRECTOR OF RUGBY Mark Lavery DirectorOfRugby@ ampthillrufc.com Ampthill & District Community Rugby Club, Dillingham Park, Woburn Street, Ampthill, Beds, MK45 2HX Email [email protected] Louis Grimoldby strikes the winning penalty last time Telephone 01525 403303 out at Dillingham Park versus Coventry. www.ampthillrufc.com Picture, Iain Frankish, Actuance Photography 3 Extensive experience of major Electrical and Mechanical installations in domestic, industrial and commercial sector environments, Wheeler Electrical Ltd have traded in the Ampthill area since 1961. We are currently working for the UK’s major House Builders and Main Contractors. Please send all enquiries to [email protected] UNIT 3-4 BLACK MOOR BUSINESS PARK | NEW ROAD | MAULDEN | MK45 2BG T: 01525 720022 / F: 01525 718844 WWW.WHEELERELECTRICAL.COM TODAY’S OPPONENTS Doncaster Knights Rugby Club The rise to National League One, from amateur status led to the rebranding of Doncaster RFC to Doncaster Knights for the 2006–07 season, and that season saw their highest placed finish to date under Clive Griffiths as Director of Rugby. Doncaster also won the Yorkshire Cup. After the departure of Griffiths to Worcester, the current DOR Lynn Howells joined the club on the eve of the 2007–08 season. Justin Bishop, signed from London Irish, had acted as DOR during the pre-season. Howells inspired the Knights to almost repeat the 3rd-place finish in his first season in charge and has moulded the squad in his own image for the 2008–09 season. 9 January saw the opening of the new De Mulder-Lloyd Stand at Castle park, a £3m state of the art 1650 seater stand. Driven by CEO James Criddle and funded by Tony De Mulder and Steve Lloyd this has seen Castle Park develop into undoubtedly the best rugby facility in South Yorkshire. The home of the Knights, Castle Park, featured in and won “4 Weddings” and also hosted the Northern BBC TV news coverage for Remembrance Day during 2009 showing how for the operational side of the club has come supporting the on the pitch success. The 2009–10 season saw the squad decimated by injuries, with no fewer than 15 unavailable players at one stage from a squad of 32. Despite this, and an inhuman 9 games in 27 days (of which they won 8) the Knights managed the Semi Final of the British and Irish Cup and a promotion Play Off finish. The result of the season being the defeat of Bristol at Castle Park, who like Leeds Carnegie before them underestimated the Knights as home. 6 The 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons were very average seasons with the Knights managing mid table status and avoiding the relegation playoffs with a reduction in playing budget meaning a shuffling of the pack which saw several long serving players move on to other clubs. The captures of the likes of Tristan Roberts and Paul Devlin hinted at a more creative side than the powerhouse forward game Doncaster are known for traditionally. The 2012–13 season saw the Knights have a disappointing season with only three wins and a draw out of twenty two league matches and two wins from six in the British and Irish Cup competition which resulted in relegation (for the first time in Doncaster history) back to National League 1. One of the few highlights being a win over local rivals Leeds Carnegie 23 – 17 in February 2013. For the 2013–14 season DOR Clive Griffiths signed a variety of new and returning players including Mat Clark, Paul Jarvis, Bevon Armitage, Roberto Santamaria and Bruno Bravo who would all feature as regulars in the coming season. The season looked to begin badly for the Knights as they were once again plagued by injuries particularly in the forwards but still with an intention to be the first team to secure promotion back to the Championship at the first time of asking. The Knights started strongly recording seven straight wins before losing away to Henley Hawks 11–10 [1] in a close fought game. The Knights campaign continued strongly at home although with away losses to Blaydon and Wharfedale they could not fully pull away from the following pack. With further signings during the year, such as former British Lion Darren Morris,[2] London Irish back row Danny Kenny,[3] Argentinian- Italian prop Santiago Sodini[4] and the return of former Knight Richard List from RC Narbonne[5] to bolster the injury prone team, the Knights continued to be the team to beat having been top of the table for the majority of the season. In late March 2014 with only four games left to play of the season there were only two teams (Rosslyn Park & the Knights) left with the potential to win the league and with them due to meet on 29 March many thought this could be the most important match of the season. The game resulted in a win for Rosslyn Park and meant the Knights would need to win all three of their remaining matches to guarantee promotion. With a win over Wharfedale (57–17) at home to secure a 100% home win record for the season followed by away wins against Coventry (17– 18) & Blackheath (20–38) the Knights secured promotion back to the Championship despite having lost one more game than Rosslyn Park (having achieved more bonus points to be three points clear). During the 2013–14 season Tyson Lewis was the top try scorer for National League 1 with 22 tries and his teammate Mat Clark was equal second on 20 tries. Tyson also achieved Guinness World Record fame for “The fastest time to score a try in a rugby union match”. The try was scored direct from the opening kick- off in 7.24 seconds (Doncaster Knights vs Old Albanians at Wollam Playing Fields, St Albans, UK, on 23 November 2013). 7 Club honours Doncaster Knights • Yorkshire Cup winners (4): 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008 • North East 1 Champions: 1993-94 • North Division 2 champions: 1996–97 • North Division 1 champions: 1998–99 • National League 3 North champions: 2001–02 • National League 1 (formerly National Division 2) champions (2): ‘04-’05, ‘13-’14 LAST TIME OUT Ampthill travelled to Castle Bar on a fine, dry but cold afternoon.