Presidents Welcome to Sandal

Today we welcome to Beechwood our longstanding friends from over the Pennines, for what has been for ‘many a year’ one of our most popular fixtures.  Sadly, due to the reorganisation of the leagues next season this may be our last encounter for some considerable time and as such we wish our friends from Sandal a fond ‘au revoir’. Today’s game will be made all the spicier since Lymm were beaten in the corresponding away fixture earlier in the season, when a cold November wind made for difficult conditions. Sandal ran out very worthy winners that day 17-10, though at half time this was a game that I felt we should have won.

Lymm go into today’s game in good form having completed the double over local rivals Macclesfield last weekend, in what was a very entertaining game that saw some excellent attacking and defensive skills. However, Lymm, being Lymm, always like to give their supporters a few scares for the journey home.  Having decided to relax completely for the last 10 minutes of the game the final score line of 21 -26 flattered the home side.

The win would appear to have strengthened our position in the top half of the table; we are currently 6^th and level on points with Alnwick in 5^th and if we can continue with our good form, then a couple more upward moves are possible.  Sandal go into today’s game off the back of an impressive 26 -26 draw against Blackburn and now sit 11^th in the table.

Lymm 2^nd XV also had a magnificent win against Macclesfield last weekend with a certain Toby Philips scoring a try for Lymm in the first half and a hat-trick for Macclesfield in the second half, as Lymm graciously loaned players to even up the teams. Excellent sportsmanship. We also gave senior debuts to 18-year-old prop Sohail Kakaie and back row Harrison Krippner.  These two, along with other youngsters Juan Chang, Dalton Frith, Will Higgins and Ben Polec, show that the conveyor belt of junior players coming through the club to play at senior level is still extremely strong. This is a fantastic tribute to the M&J section, Will Hind and all the coaches, past and present, for the tremendous effort that has gone in over the last 50 years the section has been running. Our Life President Jim Knowles, assisted by Madoc Jones, was largely responsible for the M&J introduction following the RFU initiative in the 1971/72 season. Whilst I don’t have an accurate figure, it is not uncommon on any given match day for over half of the first team to have come through the M&J ranks as well as providing other players throughout the club. Well done, and thanks to everyone associated in keeping and feeding the future supply line of our Club in great shape.

Finally, we all pride ourselves on giving a warm and sporting welcome to Beechwood to all our opponents, spectators, and officials. Friendly banter is great but let’s remember to make sure that we are always on the correct line of sportsmanship and respect for all even if the ref makes the odd mistake!

Good luck to all our teams today and I’ll catch you in the bar later for a pint!

Neil Kelly

President, Lymm RFC