We’ve drawn Barnard Castle away in round 1 of the EDF Senior Vase.  The tie will be played on Saturday 6th of September and will be the first competitve fixture of the season for the 1st XV.  The EDF Senior Vase competition is open to sides playing at level 7 and level 8; Barnard Castle are playing in Durham & Northumberland 2.  The full draw can be viewed by clicking here.

Tuesday’s training session will start indoors with a short (15 min) players’ meeting.  Simon will introduce the attack and defence patterns for the season and their associated calls.  It is important that we get maximum turnout for this briefing to ensure clarity as we take these into practical preparation.  Training outdoors will continue after the meeting.

Well done to all those who attended Thursday night training, a really tremendous effort was put in by all. The ‘Hills and Steps’ was a great challenge and this session was approached with an excellent team attitude which bodes well for the coming season. There was a really good buzz in the club house afterwards for the chilli, beer and ‘Fines Fest’.

Beware!…… those that slipped away early or failed to attend  will not escape the Fines Master!!

With six session now under our belts I am sure that those attending are enjoying it and feeling fitter already. For those not attending perhaps you should take a look, as rest assured you are now playing catch up. Only twelve sessions to the first pre season game. Come on down don’t let those putting in the hard yards down.

We are averaging over 30 players per session with other players letting us know when they are unavailable and if they all turned up we would have 40+ players every session. It would be great if that number were 50+. By missing training you are also missing information about forth coming events being organised on the players behalf. Please don’t use cricket as an excuse.

We’ve drawn Guisborough (Durham & Northumberland 3) away in the 1st round of the Yorkshire shield; the tie must be played by October 18th.  The full draw is here.

A reminder to all, training has started on Tuedsay and Thursday evenings starting promptly at 7pm.

Can all players remember to bring boots and training shoes to all sessions.

Congratulations to Steve Moss-Blundell who has been elected as 1st XV skipper for the coming season. Steve has also invited Ian McAra to be his vice-captain and I’m confident we’ve got two good people to help lead the team forward. Rob Lamb has also been elected as Hornblowers (2nd XV) captain. Further decisions will made made on 3rd XV captain, 2nd XV manager and 3rd XV manager shortly.

Reminder that pre-season starts on Thursday with a players’ meeting followed by a light training session.  We’ll start in the clubhouse at 7.00pm with the intention of being outside by 7.30.  Please be changed and ready for training before the meeting starts as we’ll be into action immediately the meeting ends.

Please note some very important dates that are coming up. The AGM is on Wednesday 11th of June at 7.30pm. All club members, especially players, should make every effort to get to the club and vote on next season’s skippers and other appointments.

Pre-season training will commence on Thursday the 12th of June with a players’ meeting at 7.00pm followed by training at 7.30. The players’ meeting will allow the new management team to outline plans for the coming season, including details of pre-season training, selection policy and expectations and ambitions.

All senior players are requested to attend on the 12th.

The Yorkshire 2 league fixtures for next season have been published - the division is now down to 11 teams as Redcar have been placed in Durham/Northumberland 2 following their relegation from Yorkshire 1.

The league kicks off on Saturday 13th of September with Ripon being the side without an opening day fixture. Our first league game is on Saturday 20th when we welcome Wheatley Hills to Mallorie Park, follwed by an away game at Yarnbury the following Saturday. The EDF Senior Vase 1st Round takes place on Saturday 6th of September.

You can download the full Yorkshire 2 fixture list (pdf) from here.