Fixtures and Results 2015 - 16 Club President Wolves Vikings Developmentals N1W Standish Media Services 1 Raging Bull 3S NIGEL DAY September 5 WARRINGTON L WARRINGTON W U OF LIVERPOOL VETS HWO 12 Eccles W BURNAGE W Manchester 2 L Welcomes 19 ALTRINCHAM KERSAL W Altrincham Kersal W LYMM W 26 BROUGHTON PARK W Broughton Park W Widnes 2 L PENRITH October 3 Blackburn W LIVERPOOL COLLEGIATE W BROUGHTON PARK W 10 LEIGH W Leigh AWO Glossop W 17 Vale of Lune W CREWE & N’TWICH (Cup) W University of Liverpool (Cup) L Today’s visitors to the Memorial Ground are Penrith. They have made the trip down the M6 looking to 24 ROCHDALE W Wirral L WIRRAL 31 close the gap on Wilmslow in the league. Their form has been good with four wins in their last four matches and which included the second leg of the double over local rivals, Carlisle. November 7 Widnes W BOLTON W Dukinfield 2 L 14 CARLISLE W ALTRINCHAM KERSAL W 21 Penrith W BLACKBURN W Burnage W Penrith maybe be fourth in the league to Wilmslow’s third, 20 points behind with a game in hand but that 28 CREWE & NANTWICH W FIRWOOD WATERLOO W doesn’t make the result a foregone conclusion, I daresay the result of the game earlier in the season will December 5 KENDAL L Preston Grasshoppers 3 P BROUGHTON PARK 4 P 12 Kirkby Lonsdale L MACCLESFIELD 3 P Marple 2 W definitely raise their desire to put the record right from their point of view. 19 ECCLES L Burnage W MANCHESTER 2 L 26 On the Thursday night before Easter, the Wolves (entertained a seemingly low-spirited Widnes side, who January 2 MACCLESFIELD 3 W battled away but could not overcome a stronger Wolves side. This was definitely not the result Widnes was 9 Altrincham Kersal P ALTRINCHAM KERSAL W Lymm P looking for, as it seems to bring to an end their 5 year run in North One West. It would be remiss of me not 16 Broughton Park W BROUGHTON PARK P WIDNES 2 P 23 BLACKBURN W Liverpool Collegiate W Broughton Park 3 W to mention the hat-trick of tries scored by the galloping prop, Taher, he is, I understand, very happy to 30 Leigh W LEIGH W GLOSSOP provide full details of the yards covered, dummies and sidesteps made! This was, and I stand corrected, the February 6 Altrincham Kersal W first league game the Wolves had played under the new Memorial Ground floodlights and they certainly 13 VALE OF LUNE L Crewe & Nantwich W Firwood Waterloo C 20 Rochdale W WIRRAL W Wirral L seemed to adapt quite easily. 27 Rossendale D OLD BEDIANS 1 L March 5 WIDNES P Bolton P DUKINFIELD 2 Today, for the Vikings it will be a question of ‘head down, forget about last week’, as they take on 12 Blackburn L BURNAGE Broughton Park for the second time in two weeks, last weekend in the league, this weekend in the cup. Last 19 Carlisle W ROSSENDALE W Old Bedians 1 L 24 WIDNES W weekend didn’t quite go according to plan so today it is not about the league, it’s first past the post goes 26 BROUGHTON PARK L GLOSSOP W through! Silverware coming, boys? April 2 PENRITH 9 Kendal PRESTON GRASSHOP- Broughton Park 4 For the Hawks, it was like the old days, a game on Easter Saturday and another on Easter Monday, both 16 KIRKBY LONSDALE PERS MARPLE 2 23 Warrington Macclesfield 3 U of Liverpool Vets profitable. Saturday saw the Hawks entertain Glossop and rack up a 51-0 win, Monday saw a much closer Warrington fought contest, finally coming out on top 29-28. An outstanding performance on fronts, guys! Today, there is no let-up for Macca & Jims’ boys as they take on Dukinfield, currently two league places above. Raging Bull Senior Colts League D It is not often we hear, at least in rugby, about things said in the ‘heat of battle’ making the news headlines, September 6 Bolton L January 3 Oldham 13 LIVERPOOL ST H L 10 ALDWINIANS we are all aware of the ‘sledging’ that apparently goes on in cricket, so I guess sooner or later the battery of 20 Fleetwood L 17 cameras and microphones surrounding the sporting arena, designed to give the full sense of being there 27 24 Rossendale whilst watching, would reveal comments that could be seen as defamatory or insulting either by someone October 4 Sedgley Park L February 7 County Cup Rd there or watching. It is a difficult one, as I’m sure we have all, at some time or another, particularly in the 11 OLDHAM W 14 BOLTON AWO 18 Aldwinians W 21 ‘heat of battle’, said something that was an immediate reaction to something that had happened and we 25 ROSSENDALE 28 hadn’t necessarily had time to think it through before opening our mouth. I hope the powers that be can bring a swift and correct solution, whatever that might be, to incident that occurred in the England / Wales November 8 New Brighton W March 6 League Cup Rd 15 Liverpool St H L 13 League Cup Rd game. 22 FLEETWOOD W 20 League Cup Rd 29 County Cup Rd 27 nd 29 Tomorrow, Sunday 2 April, Wilmslow host the Waters Half Marathon when close on 5000 runners will circumnavigate the Cheshire countryside as quickly as they can. The course records currently stand at a December 6 April 3 County Cup Rd 13 SEDGLEY PARK 10 League Cup ridiculously fast, in my opinion, for the men; 61:52 minutes (Isaac Macharia (Kenya)) and for the women 20 17 71:24 minutes (Perendis Lekapana (Run Fast)). We thank Waters for their continued support of the Half 27 24 League Cup Finals Marathon, and the rugby club. If you have a spare couple of hours, in the morning, and you’d like some May 1 County Cup Finals fresh air, it is not too late to help out! Good luck to all the organisers, volunteers and, of course, the runners. Saturday 13th. February 2016 North 1 West Wilmslow 12 – 17 Vale of Lune When the great day of reckoning comes at the end of the season, then surely this match against Vale of Lune will go down in the annals as a squandered opportunity. Wilmslow had more than enough good possession and field position to have won comfortably, even against a defiant and determined Vale defence. Back in October, Vale had conceded seven tries to Wilmslow and their side, now improving and growing in confidence, had arrived at The Memorial Ground with a plan to ensure that that particular humiliation would not be repeated. They knew what the Wolves’ backs were capable of if given the time and space on the ball so they must have been practising coming up quickly and flat in training to close them down before any damage was done. That certain Wilmslow supporters on the touch line vocally thought that Vale were offside the whole game is irrelevant as the only opinion that mattered was that of referee Daniel Taylor who took a different view. It had been a difficult week for Wilmslow coach Rick Jones to prepare his side. Bob MacCallum’s forthcoming stag weekend on the ski slopes was a distraction, he could have done without and entailed selecting a new half back combination in Nick Barker at No. 9 and Andy Walker at No. 10. for the first time. Both of them are decent enough players but it was a big ask in the face of Vale’s onrushing defence. A number of the players were travelling after the game to join MacCallum on the slopes so one couldn’t help wondering if they were all fully focussed on the job at hand. Wilmslow is not the first rugby club to have clashes with stag weekends and marriages and most certainly won’t be the last. Wolves’ Plan A is always to run and move the ball wide from the outset and if that isn’t working then move on to Plan A+, which is the same thing but done faster and normally leads to a growing number of missed or misdirected or dropped passes. With a new half back hinge, doing OK but not great, play became frantic. Even at 12 – 12, the Wolves seemed to be chasing the game with Plan A+ when what was needed was some Plan B to mix things up a bit, to regain control, and to have the patience to take things on in the forwards and to build a position. The opening Wolves score came after eight minutes when five metres from the Vale line, No. 8 Alex Taylor broke from the scrum and fed Nick Barker outside him for the simplest of scores, converted by Barker himself. Less than ten minutes later, Vale were 7 -12 ahead, having scored two tries. Both had their origins in the failure of the Wolves to deal with the restart. On the first occasion, Wilmslow caught the ball but lost control at the breakdown, Vale were awarded a scrum, kicked to the right hand corner, won the lineout and set their backs off to the left where right winger Michael Forrest joined the line and made a long diagonal scoring run to the left hand corner. The Wolves restart then didn’t go ten yards, Vale made ground from the scrum, Wilmslow got penalised for another breakdown offence and from the ensuing catch and drive, Vale hooker Dan Baines touched down.