President's Welcome 2018/19 8 of 14

8. Moortown - 17th November 2018


Selby v Moortown
Saturday 17/11/18

Our visitors today are Moortown and we wish all players, supporters and members a warm welcome to Sandhill Lane. After a couple of defeats early in the season, Moortown have really been flying and are currently the Yorkshire 1 top points scorers, averaging over 40 points in their 9 completed matches and achieving a points difference in excess of 200. Statistics like those tell everyone that Moortown must be considered serious contenders for promotion from Yorkshire 1 and we should be in for another tough afternoon. However our players often respond better to a bigger challenge and with the backing of the Selby faithful we can hope that this afternoon’s fixture once again brings out the very best from our youngsters. Despite our recent loss away at Brods, there was much to be pleased with, as we managed 5 tries against them including 3 whilst playing uphill and against the wind.

An unfortunate set of circumstances meant that we had to forfeit our Yorkshire Shield match away at Middlesbrough last weekend, but with a growing injury list and a significant number of unavailabilities amongst the second team, who were down as having no fixture on the day that England played The All Blacks, it is easy to see why the very difficult decision had to be taken as it was. Hopefully the week’s rest will have given a number of our absentees the chance to recover and be available for selection for this week’s encounter.

Last weekend presented me with a real chance to have a look at the Club away from the First XV and I was well impressed with what I saw. On Saturday I managed to ref the fourth team in a very entertaining game against Wath (38-36) whilst keeping one eye on the thirds who were putting Richmondshire to the sword in their North Yorkshire Trophy match (61-19 or thereabouts). Sunday saw me again with whistle in hand (and occasionally in mouth) reffing our Under 14s against a good Morley side after taking in half of the Junior Colts’ game against Thorne and the Senior Colts Cup Match against Rishworthians. In all games there was some excellent Rugby played and the level of skill on display is testament to the volunteers who give up their time to develop the youngsters at our Club.

On the subject of volunteering, I would like to pass on my thanks and congratulations to Karen Ratcliffe for the work she has already done with regards Club Communication since taking on the role. Karen has made a great job of maintaining the quality of our weekly programme and members will no doubt be impressed by the early inclusion of the First Team squad on the cover and the photo from our recent Vice Presidents and Life Members Lunch. I know that Karen is desperate to improve the programme further and is always on the look out for stories, articles and memorabilia to fill its pages. Additionally she has ambition to get everybody in the Club to reguarly visit the Club’s Pitchero website to keep up to date with news from all areas and teams from Micros right through to the 4ths and hopefully the fifths eventually.

As always with Christmas approaching, there are plenty of events to keep people busy and I would like to give an early shout out for the President’s Charity Quiz which was organised for the first time last season and is due to return on Friday 7th December. All proceeds from the evening will be split between MacMillan Nurses and Breast Cancer Awareness and I hope that members from all parts of the Club will find the time to support this Major Fundraiser. In addition there is a Ladies’ Lunch scheduled for December 1st, the ever popular Muffits Lunch on the 15th and of course the Christmas Lunch on Sunday 23rd. Shortly thereafter I actually reach a milestone myself, when I will be celebrating my 60th Birthday on Saturday 29th December. Although there are no fixtures down for that Saturday I am hoping that as many members as possible will accept my open invitation to come down to help me celebrate from 4pm until whenever.

In conclusion, I would like to offer a gentle reminder to everybody taking part in or spectating this afternoon's game to please show respect to the match officials, players from both sides and other spectators. There is nothing better than a hard fought game of Rugby played out in front of a knowledgeable and friendly crowd and we all have to play our part in ensuring that everybody here this afternoon can go home afterwards having enjoyed some great entertainment, whether a player, flag man, referee, water boy, allickadoo or a member of the paying public. We have a duty to all visitors to Sandhill Lane to ensure that their afternoon is not ruined by the actions of one or two individuals and that everybody adheres to the RFU Code of Conduct, so I would ask that everybody makes sure that they behave in a manner befitting our great game.