Lymm RFC v Wharfedale RUFC – Saturday 23rd November 2024

It gives me enormous pleasure to welcome you to Beechwood for our 11th league fixture (and 5th home game) of the season.

I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to our visitors (and old friends) today, Wharfedale RUFC, who are based in Threshfield, which is located in the very heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park – a truly beautiful part of the country and many of us will know what John Inverdale said about watching rugby there – “To be among a large crowd at a National League match at Wharfedale Rugby Club… was to have found sporting nirvana”

What some of you may not know, however, is that J.B. Priestly is buried in the churchyard of the Church of St Michael and All Angels (which he visited frequently and described it as the “smallest, pleasantest place in the world“) which is only about 11 miles from Grassington. “Although vaguely interesting, what has that got to do with rugby?” I hear you say.

Well, if Mr Priestly were around today, I suspect that he would be a Lymm fan – witness the following exchange taken from his novel “Angel Pavement” published in 1930:

“Do you ever watch rugger, Golspie?” Mr Dersingham demanded down the table. “What, rugby? Haven’t see a match for years,” replied Mr Golspie. “Prefer the other kind when I do watch one.” Major Trape raised his eyebrows, “What … this professional stuff? Don’t tell me you like that.” “What’s the matter with it?” “Oh, come now! I mean, you can’t possibly – I mean it’s a dirty business, selling fellahs for money and so on, very unsporting”.  You can’t get much more Lymm than that!

I suspect that, like me, many of you are running out of superlatives to describe our season to date.  So here are a series quotes courtesy of either The Rugby Paper or National League Rugby:

Round 1 – “Lymm joyous over away-day success” (Hull Ionians away) Round 2 – “a scintillating display” (Chester away) Round 3 – “Lethal Lymm beginning to turn heads … as another relentless display saw them swat Fylde aside 49-14 at Crouchley Lane“ (Fylde home) Round 4 – “Lymm continue winning streak“ (Sheffield Tigers away) Round 5 – “…it is still very early days in the season but … you got the feeling that the North-West outfit don’t want their blistering form to stop any time soon“ (Harrogate home) Round 6 – “Lymm’s … eye-catching and extremely encouraging start to this term continued in Round Six…but only just “ (Tynedale away) Round 7 – “Lymm make it the magnificent seven … the North-West side moved to the top of the table. Adam Fletcher and Andy Davies’ men dispatched Otley 53-22“ (Otley home) Round 8 – “…there are multiple examples of Lymm operating at optimum level this season. Eight victories from eight and maximum points obviously speaks volumes but adding another win to that tally against Leeds Tykes could have Lymm dreaming” (Hull away) Round 9 – “Unbeaten Lymm put Tykes on a leash …as both sides put on an exhibition of attacking rugby for the bumper crowd in the leafy Cheshire suburbs” (Leeds Tykes home) Round 10 – “It’s a perfect 10 for impressive Lymm” (Billingham away).

Wharfedale’s Match Preview for today’s game continues in the same vein: “Newly promoted Lymm joined this division last season. Their tenth-place finish, in a season which included two defeats at the hands of Wharfedale, gave no clue as to the tsunami of five-point victories they were about to launch upon their unsuspecting rivals. They now sit atop the division, four points ahead of the shell-shocked pre-season favourites Leeds Tykes, their victims two matches ago by 30-26. Perhaps as impressive as the results themselves is Lymm’s apparent ability to win ugly, witness their wins by a one point margin at Sheffield Tigers, five points at Tynedale, six points at Hull and ten points last Saturday at Billingham. So on Saturday the team heads to Cheshire, ambitious to be the first side to upset the upwardly mobile Lymm“

I can’t tell you whether Wharfedale will upset “upwardly mobile Lymm” today but it will undoubtedly be another tough game against seasoned opponents whose have performed consistently at his level since 2016 and before that, during their unbroken 20-year stint in National League 1.

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.