Articles by JDriver

A pulsating match ended with both sides taking a share of the points. Ionian’s coach, Graham Steadman, summed up the game saying “we lacked composure at important moments. Wharfedale put up a spirited display and on reflection the draw was a fair result”.

Wharfedale spent the first period of the game defending in their own half. Hull could not break the Dale defence which was its usual resolute self. If there was a moment of controversy it was about the new 50-22 rule. Hull gathered a clearance kick and a few phases later were back in their own half and …

A mid week league cancellation saw the Dev XV making a short cross border trip to be hosted by Colne and Nelson.

A squad made up of a healthy  mix of youth and experience saw the Greens take an early lead with Skipper Jonathan Davies converting his own try. Sadly a front row injury saw uncontested scrums be order of the day.

By half time Viner had crossed twice with Kaup-Samuels and Bowers scoring  with Davies adding all three conversions. The try of the match however was a great individual effort by Colne and Nelson which was successfully converted.

Half …

Brave Wharfedale succumb to Fylde 2^nd half blitz

by John Utley

On a damp drizzly day in front of a good crowd Wharfedale had the better of the early possession, although both sides committed multiple ball handling errors.

An early penalty was converted by Jack Blakeney Edwards in the 12th minute to settle nerves making the score 0 – 3.

Then, against the run of play in the 16^th minute, Fylde broke out from their half and the speedy Tom Carleton scored a try, the extras added by Gregory Smith making the score 7 – 3.

Dale were …

Hats off to both sets of players who made every effort to play open rugby on a wet afternoon. Blaydon did have the upper hand for a good period of the second half especially when Dale had two yellow cards. Strong defence by the Green Machine stopped the line being breached and they held on to a slender lead. When restored to 15 men the home side grew in stature and eventually pulled away to grab the four points.

Early mistakes from Dale gave the visitors possession and territory. A Blaydon try was disallowed for a forward pass and a …

Following on from last weekends victory at Sandal, the Foresters squad travelled to Hipperholme to take on Old Brodleians, instead of the league fixture at home to Scunthorpe due to a Covid outbreak….

Another testing week for management with unavailability and late call ups to the 1st team squad, we were once again forced into uncontested scrums, and a late injury in the warm up to Duncan Clayton-Stead forced Sam Arkwright to step into the unfamiliar territory of second row!

The squad were in good spirits despite a third away game on the trot, playing across the road down the …

This was a day that everyone involved from Wharfedale will want to put behind them. A long and difficult bus journey was followed by a performance that was distinctly below par, even for a side as injury-ravaged as the Green Machine. Newly-promoted Bournville scored ten tries to two on the way to inflicting Wharfedale’s heaviest league defeat in many a year.

The shape of things to come was evident in the first 5 minutes as Bournville showed their intent to attack from all quarters of the field with first a 40m run out of his own half by no 8 …