News

Our annual presentation and race night combined is planned for Friday 18th November with a 7pm start until 12. This will be the normal format 4 races break for quick presentation and another 4 races with the final auction race which will be around 11 to 11.30pm all members are urged to get the names of their horses to Paul or Dean along with their respective monies and attendance numbers ASAP before the season finishes.

We are looking for race sponsors for our programe it is £20 per race, can members ask their work or business who they may think would be intrested, it is important to sponsor the races as this help with the costs of the night.

Ask friends and family if they would like to attend the more the merrier last year we had 92 people at the night lets see if we can beat this. 

Remember names of horses, payment and numbers of who will attend to Paul and Dean as quick as you can.

We are having to cancel our 6 A Side competition planned for August Bank Holiday Sunday dated 28th August, due to the Sunday Fooball Leagues bringing forward the start of the football season. We are now able to use this day for our annual Veterans v Young Guns match. The Vets is to be captained by Jim "the Hoover" Peacock and the Young Guns by David "Dipply Dobler" Wanless, the game to start at 1.00pm with it being a 30 over game. Members are urged to attend and support your club the bar will be open & the B B Q will be available just bring along you bait and family and enjoy the day.

Work is still on-going the tea room and kitchen will have their new windows installed on Thursday 28th July, the gable windows are to be fitted on Friday 29th July, the new facia, soffit and gutters will be fitted on Monday 1st & Tuesday 2nd August and the remainder of the windows on the front and rear elevation will be fitted Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th August, the new external doors and tea room shutter will be fitted the following week.

The building still needs 3/4 of the lights to be installed and a new door and frame on room 6, our tea room will have the carpets fitted sometime of the week commencing 1st August fingers crossed. Then we will need to give the kitchen and tea rooms a good wash out etc.

The Veterans v Young Guns match planned for 14th August 2011, will have to be cancelled as the 2nd Team Cup Final v Blue Flames has been re-arranged for the 14th August.

We are to arrange a new date however we need to speak to the captains first to see the best available date, bearing in mind the Music Festival on 19th, 20th, 21st and the 6 A Side competition on the 28th.

Our Club has a few events planned for August they are:

Sunday 14th August 1pm start is our annual Young Guns V our Veterans it is a 30 over match. BBQ after the game as normal.

Friday 19th, Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st Ashington Rugby club has organised a 3 day music festival called the "REC FEST" with over 30 bands attending with 3 stages a covered over dance tents with food and various stalls. The club is also raising money for The Children's Cancer Trust. All this will take place on the 3rd Team Rugby Pitch. Tickets are availabe on line they are priced at £5 Friday and £10 each for Saturday and Sunday, they are going quick so buy now or miss out no tickets are availabe on the day.  

Sunday 28th August 10.30am start is our annual pub 6 a side competition, food and drink is available for everyone at cheap rates bring along family and friends. This is one of our major fund rasing events so we need as many members to come a support the club, with umpiring, scoring, serving food and drink and general looking after the ground it is an all day event names of members to your chairman.

In slightly more arid conditions than the sides previous meeting the 1^st XI defeated mid table rivals Whitley Bay by 83 runs at the Rec on Saturday.

Once again Greaves lost a toss that would have been useful to win & we were inserted on a track that looked to have a little moisture in it to no doubt help the seamers, with grey skies overhead the Rugby boys knew the opening exchanges would be crucial.

The pacey Latimer took the 1^st over safely negotiated by openers Harwood & Hardy while the wiley Pearson the 2^nd from the Rugby Club end immediately extracted extravagant seam movement from the dampish pitch.

Progress was slow with both openers playing & missing on regular occasions while Harwood was dropped at 2^nd slip, a regulation catch, off Pearsons bowling. With the 1^st 10 safely negotiated & the scoring rate just starting to put the overs to shame Pearson managed to slip one through Hardy’s defences & bowl him for 14. Disappointment again for Hardy who once again failed to capitalise after laying the foundations for a longer innings.

Duncan Storey recalled to the 1sts was next in & out, Pearson once again drew the edge & Ben Harris, at 3^rd slip, one handed over his head took a stunner to send Storey back for 1 despite not seeming to know much about it. Paul Milburn joined Harwood at the crease & the pair continued to pick up what they could seeing off the openers in the process.

The introduction of Harris & May into the attack saw the scoring rate rise as the pitch dried out & Harris in particular struggled for length however they were well backed up by the Bay fielders in the ring leaving both batsmen frustrated as solid shots yielded nothing on several occasions. After scratching around for 25, Harwood was finally dismissed, caught behind off May bringing the elder of the Tanney brothers Matty to the crease.

For a short while he & Milburn added a bit of impetus to the innings until the latter was smartly caught behind by keeper Piper off spinner Parkinson’s quicker ball. Callum replaced Paul Milburn & was bowled by Parkinson for 4 attempting the same sweep that had brought him a boundary previously & last weeks hero Lewis Tanney was soon to follow caught & bowled again by Parkinson.

The usual middle order collapse was now in full swing as Hetherington was caught behind off the returning Pearson for 1 but luckily Matty Tanney was still at the other end picking up runs where available & being particularly severe on any width offered. Skipper Greaves was in at 9 & a sensible innings from him got us over the perceived 150 Par score until he was caught by Stephenson off Pearson for 10 attempting to up the scoring rate.

The last rites of the innings were read by Parkinson who had the maturing Tanney well caught in the deep for an excellent innings best 46, then bowled Elliott in the 49^th over to wrap the innings up on 164 finishing with 5 for 21 off 6.5 (Spinners wanted apply within).

At tea (which was taken this week) both sides were reasonably happy with their efforts: Whitley maybe thinking they hadn’t taken full use of the favourable bowling conditions early on while we looked at 1 point like making 180+.

Greaves & Lewis Tanney took the new ball knowing early wickets were needed or the game could easily drift away. Whitley openers Parkinson & Hymers were played sensibly looking to see off the new ball despite playing & missing on several occasions each as both bowlers regularly hit the right areas. As the frustration grew for the fielding side up popped Greaves to dismiss Parkinson for 10 with a smart caught & bowled then followed that up by snaring the dangerous Afaq, caught by Hetherington for 0.

Lewis Tanney then joined the party finally dismissing Hymers for 13 well caught by brother Matty low at point for 13 & from there Ben Harris was lbw to Greaves for 0 & Mark Harris direct hit run out by that man (Matty) Tanney again for 0.

Trev Elliott was introduced to the attack & the scoring rate ground to a halt as skipper Hawke & Pearson looked to regroup after bay had slipped from 22 for 0 to 33 for 5. Greaves starting to tire removed himself from the attack & was replaced by Wanless who despite his obligatory loosener was soon into the groove.

Pearson was next to go for 3 unluckily playing on to Wanless as his usual attacking game had been stifled by the accuracy of the bowling & Stephenson followed for 0 again bowled by Wanless. With Elliott bowling a nagging legside line & going at less than 1 an over skipper Hawke decided it was time to play some shots off Wanless & lumped the Harry Hill lookalike back over his head a couple of times until he mistimed one & Wanless himself took the return catch.

Piper & Latimer having had a look at the bowling then launched a few lusty blows of their own but it didn’t last long as Wanless bowled Piper for 12 & shortly after repeated the trick bowling number 11 May for 4, leaving the chatty Latimer unbeaten on 11 & the innings over on 81.

Wanless finished with 5 for 28 & Greaves 3 for 8 (off 11) but the pressure applied by all 4 bowlers ultimately told on the Whitley batters well backed up by some good ground fielding.

The 2nds lost in the reverse fixture, despite posting a competitive 178 for 6 in which Maddison 38, Clark 41 & Skipper Henderson 59no all contributed. Whitley led by 90 from Ord finally won by 5 wickets in the final over as youngsters Cory Milburn & Craig Jobson shared the wickets.

On Wednesday the Midweek side lost at Bedlington after being bowled out for only 71. 26 from McCafferty & 27no from Hartnett saw the Terriers home by 7 wickets in only 12.2 overs despite a couple of wickets from Ryan Pringle.

The 1sts surprisingly travelled to Stobswood on Saturday belying the weather predictions that had forecasted heavy rain for the region for most of Saturday & managed to pick up some useful bonus points to make it worth their while.

Skipper Greaves once again lost what was envisaged to be a crucial toss & unsurprisingly we were asked to bat in humid conditions with the threat of rain never far away.

Usual opener Harwood was joined by Dean Hardy & the two managed to negotiate the 1^st few overs from Richard & Dan Watson with little alarm. As they established themselves at the crease the scoring rate rose with Harwood looking to hit any width through the off side while enjoying a few slices of luck along the way as he just managed to avoid the fielders on several occasions.

With the score on 78 Hardy went, well caught by keeper Black off the recently introduced Beverley for a patient 25. This brought Adamson to the crease however he failed to reach double figures before being smartly caught at Square leg for 9 off Ian Watson’s bowling, Paul Milburn (2), Matty Tanney (5) & Callum Milburn a 1^st ball duck all fell to the experienced duo to pull Stobswood back in the game leaving Rugby 117 for 5.

With the innings in the balance enter the talented but enigmatic Lewis Tanney to join Harwood who continued to accumulate, while Tanney played his natural game & attacked the Stobswood bowling. Tanney’s intervention pushed the scoring rate up with boundaries now coming regularly mixed in with some aggressive running thoughts were turning to a score of near 250 with 8 overs remaining & 188 on the board.

However not to be outdone the rain that had been falling lightly for a while intensified & umpire Keenleyside took the players off the field with Harwood & Tanney unbeaten on 82 & 30 respectively.

After over 2 hours of waiting around in which bizarrely tea was not taken the captains shook hands & the match declared a draw with us picking up 9 points & Stobswood 7. At one point it seemed the rain was about to clear however there needed to be a will from both sides to get back on the pitch which their wasn’t when further bonus points would have been available to either side.

The 2nds were also rained off versus Corbridge with us struggling to 94 for 7 off 29 overs when the pitch was deemed unfit for further play!!??!!. In further news apparently there are some strange looking green things lying round the pitch at the Rec these days!!!!

On Wednesday, Old Wanless mid week juggernaut rolled on, defeating Warkworth at the Rec as 2 wickets apiece for Wanless Sr & Lewis Tanney restricted Warkworth to 107 for 4 off their 20, with Chris Younger scoring 70. Kevin ‘Why isn’t it always Wednesday’ Hetherington hit 28 & Rob Clark 34 not to see Wanless men home!

The firsts went down to Whitley Bay on Saturday in a damp affair, where yet another middle order collapse left them short of a competitive total.

After a 3 hour delay due to persistent rain a small gap in the weather allowed the covers to be removed & a reduced (25 over) game to get under way.

Once again Skipper Greaves lost the crucial toss & inevitably Rugby were asked to bat on a wicket that was just about playable but promised to give ample assistance to the bowlers provided they could find the right areas.    

Harwood opened the batting with Hardy & to their credit they were able to survive a hostile opening spell from Latimer. As the ball got damper it became easier to bat & the score began to progress until Harwood was run out for 29 by wicket keeper Piper trying to pinch a single. Hardy was soon to follow bowled by Latimer for 16 then Milburn well caught at mid wicket for only 2.

Matty Tanney was next in & he & Adamson attacked the bowling at one point 30 runs were scored off only 10 balls as boundaries became the order of the day, however just as thoughts were turning to a score of 150 plus Tanney was bowled by one that kept low from Pearson off the final ball of the over. Adamson & Spiers both picked up singles off the next over before Pearson bowled Spiers with the 1^st ball of his next over & completed his hat trick by bowling Hetherington off his 1^st ball to swing the innings back in Whitley’s favour.  

Clark then Tanney soon followed without contributing much leaving Adamson (40 not out) & Greaves (5 not out) to nudge the total up to a par 125 for 8.

Greaves & Spiers took the new ball & bowled well enough with a few play & misses, flashy drives & 1 dropped catch however once the ball became damp batting became reasonably comfortable. Greaves shuffled his bowlers & the skipper himself caught Hymers (29) low to his left off Milburn’s bowling.

Afaq came to the crease & played shots from the off as the rain intensified. Greaves returned to the attack & dismissed Afaq for 36 while the Rugby fielders enquired to the umpire as to whether they should still be on the field.

They were finally put out of their misery as Harris clubbed 12 to seal the win with opener Parkinson unbeaten on 42 at the other end. Both sides knew when they agreed to play the game would likely be won on the toss & while it be true the conditions during the 2^nd half of the 2^nd innings were to our disadvantage this shouldn’t hide the fact that the middle order collapse once again cost valuable runs that probably would have won us the game.

The 2nds game was washed out vs Clara Vale at the rec with Clara 106 for 3 of 30 overs. Wanless Sr picket up 2 wickets.