Matchday Programme Season. v Thornhill Trojans Sat 3rd February 2018 Ladbrokes Challenge Cup OFFICIAL MATCHDAY PROGRAMME

Transcription

1 Matchday Programme 2018 Season 2 v Thornhill Trojans Sat 3rd February 2018 Ladbrokes Challenge Cup OFFICIAL MATCHDAY PROGRAMME 2

2 MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE HONOURS President Dave Corless Vice President Derek Cross Chairman Ralph Rawsthorne Vice Chairman Dave Roughley Club Secretary Billy Dillon Treasurer Andy Lyons Youth & Junior Development Director Neil Belshaw Club Registration Manager Joanne Knapper Club Welfare Officer Gary Trueman Discipline Chairman Gary Philbin Junior Representative Brian Hatton School Liaison Manager Ste Edgerton Fundraising Managers Kevin Whittall Sarah Whittall Player Representative Paul Cresswell BARLA National Cup Winners: , , , BARLA Lancashire Cup Winners: 1974:74, , , BARLA Inter County Cup Winners: North West Counties Premier Cup Winners: , , North West Counties Champions: , North West Counties Div 1 Champions: , , , Warrington & District League Champions: Warrington & District League Leaders: St.Helens Junior League Champions: St,Helens Junior League Leaders: , St.Helens Cup Winners: , , West Lancs League Trophy Winners: Bootle Charity Cup Winners: BARLA John Players 7s Winners: 1982 Haresfinch 7s Winners: 2007 North West Counties Fair Play Award 2005/06 CONTACT /pilkingtonrecs

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4 CHAIRMANS WELCOME Good afternoon and welcome to Ruskin Drive for this second round game of The Ladbrokes Challenge Cup. It gives me great pleasure to welcome our opponents today, Thornhill Trojans, who have made the journey from the West Yorkshire hotbed area of Rugby league. Thornhill are a vibrant club with a strong youth and junior set of teams and when you look at their track record in this competition they are no strangers to taking on opposition from the professional code. The season got under way a few weeks ago in round one when we took on Wallsend Eagles making the long trek up to Tyneside but running out comfortable winners against a plucky Eagles outfit. Thornhill in their draw faced the shorter journey to East Leeds but also came through as convincing winners. Today s game promises to be a great curtain raiser for the National Conference League Division one season as both clubs will meet up again in the league one competition. Recs will be out to progress through to the next round and I know the coaching staff will have run them through their drills. Thornhill will be out to take the spoils and secure their place in the next round too, so it promises to be a great spectacle of rugby league. I would like to pay thanks to our hard working committee who work hard behind the scenes in managing the club business, thanks also to our sponsors for their continued support of the club. Thanks also to all our spectators who I hope will be encouraging the team on to win. Finally a big thanks to all the players and coaches at all age groups who give their time and efforts for the club. Enjoy the game, support your respective team and applaud good rugby and always spare a thought for the officials without whom we would not have a game. Come on THE RECS!! Yours in sport Ralph E. Rawsthorne Chairman All spectators are requested to remain behind the pitch side spectator barriers Inside the ground perimeter fence is strictly a No Smoking Area at all times No dogs are allowed inside the ground Please use waste bins provided to dispose of your litter

5 Finest Quality Pork Sausage Cooked Meats & Pies Lock Street, off Merton Bank Road St. Helens, WA9 1HS

6 ALEX SERVICE ADVERT

7 TODAY S VISITORS We welcome Thornhill Trojans to Ruskin Drive today in what is sure to be a real cracking match. As we shall see later, despite their relatively late formation, they have created their own particular niche in the Challenge Cup competition. According to the club s excellent website, Thornhill ARLFC was formed in 1988 at a meeting held at Thornhill Edge Club, attended by Thornhill Gate Officials, players and supporters along with Thornhill Lees Juniors parents and officials. Previously to that, Rugby League in the Thornhill area had been played under the Overthorpe Rangers and Gate Inn Banner. The club started with Overthorpe Sports Club as headquarters and after much hard work it was made into an appropriate base for the club. They applied for National Conference membership in 1994 and their fine record in the Challenge Cup began in earnest, with a tie against Hull KR in The search for a big name scalp went on: Swinton [1996] Featherstone [1997] and Dewsbury in 1998 all triumphed over the lads from Dewsbury. But then that big moment arrived. At the beginning of 2000, Thornhill, then struggling in the Premier Division relegation zone, travelled to Sheffield Eagles and pulled off the shock of the round by winning against the men who, two years before, had beaten Wigan to lift the trophy! They did it again, in 2006, when Workington Town fell at Ram Stadium, Dewsbury. The reward for this was a trip to France to play Catalan Dragons [lost 0-66] at Stade Jean Laffon in Perpignan. There was another engaging match in 2007 when Trojans played host to Russian outfit Strela Kazan in the Carnegie Challenge Cup at Overthorpe Park with 1,500 fans present. Cup hopes ended at Keighley Cougars, howeve,r with a 34-6 loss. The club has enjoyed some good times in the Conference and we look forward to renewing their acquaintance back here on 12 th June and in Dewsbury on 16 th June when we meet in the First Division when vital league points will be at stake. Over the years the club has produced many fine players for the professional game. Names that we most certainly recognise, like Bernard Watson, Johnny Harpin, the one and only Lee Gilmour, Danny Brough, Paul Sykes, Alex Bretherton and Paul and David March. As the TTARLFC website emphasises: A lot of this is down to people who put in many hours of voluntary work to produce a game which is character building and makes young people aware of life.

8 THINK YOU KNOW YOUR HISTORY? Alex Service talks about different aspects of our club which was first formed in 1878! Same Team, Different Code! The famous Recs have played three codes of football during their long existence: Rugby Union, Association Football and, of course Rugby League, the latter at semi-professional, as well as amateur level! Winger Jack Durdock Wilson s medals from the professional rugby league era between the wars: Lancashire Cup and Lancashire League. In the early 1870s, William Douglas Herman, the new Head Chemist at Pilkington s Crown Glassworks wanted to establish a rugby club in St. Helens. He looked initially to his workmates, but this came to nothing. Had it succeeded, the first team in the town would probably have been the equivalent of the Recs! Undeterred, his next course of action was to place an advertisement in the St. Helens Newspaper calling a meeting at a local hostelry, the Fleece Hotel, for anyone interested in forming a club: "It is proposed to form a football club for St. Helens and neighbourhood. Gentlemen taking an interest in the game are requested to attend a preliminary meeting to be held at the Fleece Hotel on Wednesday the 19th. November 1873 at 7.30p.m." This proved to be the kick start for what became the Saints. In 1878, however, there was sufficient interest to form a rugby club at the glassworks itself and St. Helens Recreation was born, playing matches at Boundary Road. Gradually, by the 1880s, both the Saints and the Recs grew in strength and established strong fixture lists, as well as providing a unique derby clash for local supporters of rugby. They were feisty occasions and there was also the opportunity to take part in football of a more competitive nature by the 1890s, with cup ties and leagues being introduced. Yet the bosses at Pilkingtons did not allow the club to partake in such matches. There had been a bit of bother, you see. In one match against Wigan at City Road, the visiting captain was hit across the face with a dead rat, amongst other things! So it was not for them! Meanwhile, the Saints, who were now playing on a new pitch at Knowsley Road had become Lancashire Second Division Champions and were on the up. There was also a huge issue of broken time about to cause a huge schism in the game itself. Continued later in Programme..

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12 COACHES CORNER So the new season is upon us and we welcome back all the spectators to Ruskin Drive for todays Challenge Cup tie. Whilst our opponents today, Thornhill, are unknown to us, we can be sure they will prove a stern test, and will certainly be familiar to use by the end of the season as we will meet them in the league after they had a fantastic season last year being automatically promoted from division 2. As for our 2017 season, the less said about that the better. It has, however, given the lads a real puupose this year as they came back to preseason earlier than normal to make right the wrongs of last year. That early start seems to be paying off in the last round as the players looked to be a lot fitter than at the same point last year and as a coach the desire to defend was pleasing to see. Whilst the quality of the opposition in Wallsend was not necessarily the highest, the old adage of you can only play what s in front of you comes to mind, and their were plenty of encouraging signs for the season ahead. For those that made the journey to the North East in the last round I would like to thank you for making the long trip, it is always appreciated. Finally, thanks to the committee for once again grafting behind the scenes to make all this possible.

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15 PLAYER PROFILE JON KEY Last year we spoke with Keyze who was so popular we thought we would Weight catch up with him again. Jon, What is you best rugby memory? Being part of the team that beat London Skolars was good. And then the experience of Halifax in the next round, but that didn t go so well Date of Birth 22/01/1995 Height 6 2 Who is your best teammate and why? I can t chose between Ry and Chiz, they are my boys. 96kg Debut Portico (a) 2013 NCL Games 66 NCL Tries 7 NCL Points 24 Speaking of Chiz, he s in love now. How has that impacted you friendship? It s not too bad really, she lets him out the house every now and again. Just don t see him on Sundays anymore. Just me and Ry go for brekkie now You told us last time you were a spud picker, do you do any other veg? Well, when it s winter we do a lot of packing of spuds and broccoli. In the summer we pick Spuds, Collies, Kale, Sprouts, loads of other veg. You ve told us your best teammates, but who is the laziest trainer in the squad? Ermmm.. Jamie Smith, Most talented but lazy trainer. Do you still consider yourself to be the weirdest member of the team? No. It s definitely the 3 Grant brothers. Finally, is Nikki still your dream woman? No, I d say it s Rachel Riley, although Greg picked her as well. Nikki is with Chris Smith now.

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17 THINK YOU KNOW YOUR HISTORY? Continued.. History tells us that in 1895 the Saints took the professional route, whereby players were compensated for loss of employment money if they played the game. Unfortunately the split had an unfortunate effect on the Recs. They found that many of the clubs on their fixture list had joined the new league and were forced to organise a somewhat watered A trade card for the original rugby down series of union Recs. Notice the Red and white colours! matches. In the end, the top brass decided to join the new Northern Union, in 1897, but it had to be in the second tier. Interest faded and it was then decided by the Pilkington workforce to go over to football, which had seen enormous growth in the town at the turn of the century. We will look at the round ball game in more detail at a later date, but suffice to say, this proved to be extremely popular as the team were admitted into the Lancashire Combination and this meant that the top teams in the North West sent their reserve teams to play at City Road Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City which as you can imagine was quite an attraction. The football money was also used to develop City Road and build dressing rooms and a grandstand, but even this was destined not to last. In 1914, the club returned to Northern Union, this time, in semi-professional terms, and were admitted to the league after the end of the First World War and another new chapter was about to unravel. St. Helens Recs won the Lancashire Cup before the Saints did too, but it didn t last. After a memorable twenty years for local sport in St. Helens, having two teams in the town was no longer a viable proposition. Faced with large losses, Pilkingtons no longer subsidised the Recs and they went under at the end of the campaign. The Saints could easily have done the same! It was then, ten years later, that a bunch of stalwarts resurrected the old club under the Pilkington Recreation banner, which is effectively the make-up of our club today. The big change, of course, is the move away from our spiritual home of City Road. But what a fantastic historical legacy we have, with almost 70 years in the amateur game alone. Long may it continue! You can read about Recs history in every home programme this year.

18 A TEAM FIXTURES Date Comp Home Or Opponents Result Away 3rd February-18 Friendly Home Thatto Heath B 8-22 L 11th February-18 3rd March-18 League Home Wigan St Patricks A 10th March-18 League Away Walney Central 17th March-17 League Away Leigh Miners Rangers A 24th March-18 League Home HIndpool Tigers 31st March-18 Easter Weekend 7th April-18 League Away Rochdale Mayfield A 14th April-18 League Away Halton Simms Cross 21st April-18 League Away Latchford Albion 28th April-18 League Home Widnes Tigers 5th May-18 League Home Haresfinch 12th May-18 League Away Hindpool Tigers 19th May-18 26th May-18 League Home Leigh Miners Rangers A 2nd June-18 League Away Wigan St Patricks A 9th June-18 League Home Walney Central 16th June-18 League Home Rochdale Mayfield A 23rd June-18 30th June-18 League Away Widnes Tigers 7th July-18 League Home Simms Cross 14th July-18 21st July-18 28th August-18 4th August-18 11th August-18 18th August-18 25th August-18 Nines Comp Nines Comp Challenge Cup Weekend 1st September-18 League Away Haresfinch 8th September-18 League Home Latchford Albion 15th September-18 22nd September-18 29th September-18

19 1st TEAM FIXTURES Date Comp Home Or Opponents Result Away 27th January-18 C/Cup Away Wallsend Eagles 6-42 W 11th February-18 3rd March-18 10th March-18 League Away Leigh Miners Rangers 17th March-17 League Home Ince Rose Bridge 24th March-18 League Away Skirlaugh 31st March-18 Easter Weekend 7th April-18 League Away Featherstone Lions 14th April-18 League Home York Acorn 21st April-18 League Home Milford Marlins 28th April-18 League Away Oulton Raiders 5th May-18 12th May-18 League Away Thornhill Trojans 19th May-18 League Away Lock Lane 26th March-18 2nd June-18 League Home Bradford Dudley Hill 9th June-18 League Away Shaw Cross Sharks 16th June-18 League Home Thornhill Trojans 23rd June-18 30th June-18 League Home Skirlaugh 7th July-18 League Away Milford Marlins 14th July-18 League Home Lock Lane 21st July-18 League Home Oulton Raiders 28th August-18 4th August-18 League Away York Acorn 11th August-18 League Home Shaw Cross Sharks 18th August-18 League Away Bradford Dudley Hill 25th August-18 Challenge Cup Weekend 1st September-18 League Home Featherstone Lions 8th September-18 League Away Ince Rose Bridge 15th September-18 League Home Leigh Miners Rangers 22nd September-18 29th September-18

20 PILKINGTON RECS THORNHILL TROJANS 1. Ryan Hilliard 2. Kyran Knapper 3. Andy Nisbet 4. Jon Frodsham 5. Jake Hodson 6. Tom Roughley 7. Danny Lynch 8. Jon Key 9. Ryan Liptrot 10. Mike Garrity 11. Tez Riley 12. Luke Riley 13. Jono Peers 14. Phil Riley 15. Chris Clayton 16. Mark Briody 17. Chris Smith 1. George Woodcock 2. Sam Ratcliffe 3. Will Gledhil 4. Andrew Lambert 5. Joss Ratcliffe 6. Liam Morley 7. Luke Carter 8. Tom Gledhill 9. Will Poching 10. Anthony Harris 11. George Stott 12. Wayne Wilson 13. Scott Green 14. Josh Clough 15. Liam Green 16. Ben Kendall 17. Jonathan Hellings 18. Lee Smith Coaches John Rees Liam Bostock Ste Edgerton Physio Gary Trueman Officials James Jones Phil Rigby Innes Arnold Coaches James Ratcliffe Jake Wilson Scott Dyson Thomas Codman Physio Richard Sedgwick