Lymm RFC v Leeds Tykes RUFC – Saturday 9th November 2024

As ever, it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you to Beechwood for our 9th league fixture (and 4th home game) of the season.  I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to our visitors today, Leeds Tykes, who so narrowly missed out on promotion last season.

Perhaps not a confession that I should share today but my experiences with teams from Leeds have not always been positive. On 6 May 1972, as an 8-year-old “Gooner”, I was left more than a little devastated when Leeds United beat Arsenal 1-0 in the FA Cup Final. To be fair, Leeds outplayed Arsenal that day but Allan Clarke’s diving header has been an unwanted fixture in my memory ever since. Similarly, a visit to Elland Road on 23 August 1994 left me equally traumatised – not only did Arsenal lose 1-0, my friend and I made the schoolboy error of getting tickets in the same end as the Leeds fans. As some of you may recall, tolerance was not the strong point of football in the ’80s and 90s and it was a thoroughly miserable day. Surely, another team from Leeds could not heap any more misery on me again. Read on …

In our last home fixture on 19 October we entertained Otley, who travelled to Beechwood with victories against Hull, Wharfedale and Preston Grasshoppers under their belt and had suffered only a very narrow loss (20-24) at home in their 2nd fixture of the season against the pre-season favourites for promotion and today’s visitors, Leeds Tykes.

It is fair to say that Otley arrived confident but curious as to how they would fare against a Lymm team who, as Tynedale said in their Match Day programme when we played them on 12 October, “are probably the surprise package this season”.  In the end, Lymm swept Otley aside, playing some exhilarating rugby along the way.

To quote the match report which appeared in the Warrington Guardian, Lymm “…made it seven victories from seven games with a stunning 53-22 home success against Otley, with the seventh successive bonus point taking them clear of Leeds Tykes at the top of National League 2 North” The Rugby Paper’s match report was equally glowing: “Lymm continued to flex their muscles at Beechwood comfortably easing past an Otley side which … was never able to get close enough to an outstanding opponent”.

Our last fixture was away against Hull 2 weeks ago. Last season’s fixtures were close affairs (we lost 34-27 away and won 28-22 at home) which suggested that this match would be another close encounter – so it turned out to be. Lymm recovered from 18-7 down at half-time to clinch a 18-24 bonus-point win. That weekend, Leeds Tykes had a similarly tight game, beating Preston Grasshoppers 35-29. Those results meant Lymm went into the international break with 40 points from 40 to their name. The only other team across National League Rugby who can boast that record is National 2 East leaders Tonbridge Juddians.

Returning to my ‘misery’ theme, when we played Leeds Tykes last season, the half and full time scores were 0-33 ; 21-43 (home) and 54-0 ; 78-17 (away) It is fair to say that the away result last season was a particularly chastening (if not miserable) experience.

But that was then – only one point separates the two sides today and Lymm have been scoring freely, with 338 points to their name so far. By comparison, Leeds Tykes have scored 271 points this season. However, we have conceded more points (183) than Leeds Tykes (133) Taken together, those statistics suggest that, like our last game against Hull, this will be another close encounter.

Finally, last weekend we witnessed a potentially World Record breaking event at the Club – 14 Dads teamed up with their sons to create a unique Lymm Eagles squad for a cup match against Wallasey 1st XV. All the sons who played came through Lymm M&J and Colts Academy and their Dads, without being too unkind, had seen better days! Lymm ran out winners 46–24. Huge congratulations to Martin Henderson for organising the Lymm team for that match. The 2nd XV were also in Cup action last weekend and came away from Macclesfield 2s with a close fought victory, 39 – 25. Their reward for that victory is a home fixture against Preston Grasshoppers 2s in the next round.

All that leaves me to say is that I wish all the teams, their coaches and support staff, who represent Lymm at every level, from Minis & Juniors up to Senior Rugby the best of luck this weekend.