Fylde v Tynedale - Report

Here is last week's report on the National League One fixture at The Woodlands, as it appeared in The Rugby Paper on 23 October.

A good match that saw four tries from a forward (I don't know yet if he bought a round in the clubhouse afterwards).

Fylde 39 Tynedale 28

National League One

Saturday 22 October 2011

Fylde got their season back on track, but not by doing it the easy way.

A slow start by the home side allowed Tynedale to take the lead, captain Grant Beasley driving over, with fly-half Matthew Outson missing the first of five conversion attempts.

It took the home side some time to get into their stride, but once they did, Evan Stewart got them back on track from the back row, after a fine line-out maul. 

Fylde took advantage of Myles Scott’s sin-binning, with tries from centre Mike Waywell, and Stewart again, before entering half-time with a 24-8 lead after Stewart had scored his hat-trick, peeling away from a driving maul in the goal area.

Outson added his only successful kick of the day with a penalty goal on the stroke of half-time.

Full back Nick Royle got the ball rolling almost straight from the restart, after clever play by winger Olly Brennand, with Kenyon adding the extras.

A fourth try from Stewart gave Fylde a seemingly unassailable lead, but they did their best to try and throw the game away, leaking four tries in the last half hour.

Tynedale took advantage of Alex Loney’s yellow card for not moving out of the tackle area, with scores for replacement Greg Irvine and winger Allan Rogers, before left winger Peter Cole and Beasley once more touched down late on.

Scorers:

Fylde

Tries: Stewart 22 32 40 50, Waywell 26, Royle 42

Conversions: Kenyon 27 33 43

Penalty Goals: Kenyon 80

Tynedale

Tries: Beasley 3 80, Irvine 54, Rogers 64, Cole 75

Conversions:  

Penalty Goals: Outson 40

Half-time: 24-8

Star Man: Evan Stewart

Attendance: 835

Referee: John Meredith

Teams:

Fylde: Royle, Halsall, C Briers, Waywell, Brennand, Kenyon, Wallwork, Livesey, Roddam, Loney, Arnold, Rawlings, Stewart, McGinnis, S Beaumont (Capt)

Replacements: Lavelle, Griffiths, Ferguson, Depledge, Collins

Tynedale: Harris, Cole, Mountain, Smales, Rogers, Outson, Shaw, Harrison, Ridley, Dickinson, Scott, Dunn, Northcoat-Green, Beasley (Capt), Shires

Replacements: Westgarth, McGuigan, Irvine, Cousin, Bramwell

The battle for Stamford Bridge

Interesting events today at Stamford Bridge, where the Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO) voted on Chelsea FC's proposals for the move away from their home since 1905.

CFC are unable to expand Stamford Bridge on it's current site

In these times of foreign investment in English football clubs, often from unknown sources, it was a far-sighted initiative in the early 1990s that saw the inception of the CPO as a vehicle for ensuring the security of the Stamford Bridge site as the home for Chelsea FC.

The then Chairman, Ken Bates, had successfully fought off a long-running battle with property developers to save the Bridge from being redeveloped, and with it, Chelsea FC without a ground, and put in place the CPO initiative.

Now, with the club successfully ensconced in the elite of English football, and trying to stay there, the club have decided that they need to move to a larger venue to play catch-up with other large capacity venues.

The club intend to buy out the CPO, who own the freehold to the land on which Stamford Bridge stadium sits, in order to move the club in future, to a new stadium (at a venue yet to be decided), so that the club can try to catch up with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal in it's matchday revenues.

Needing 75% of the vote to be able to carry out their proposed purchase, the motion was carried in favour by 61.6% of the shareholders. While it was a clear majority, it wasn't enough to allow the club to go ahead with their plans - yet.

Interestingly, The Independent today carried an article which raised the issue of the club's proposals. As one could imagine, Chelsea FC, having made their decision to press on with a potential move away from Stamford Bridge, they were going to try to win favour with as many CPO shareholders as possible.

As with all things in life, you can fool some people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the time, so it was understandable that a sizeable number would be sceptical about the proposals.

Reacting to the vote, Chelsea FC Chairman Bruce Buck was interviewed by the BBC shortly afterwards, where he spoke of the club's need to continue to work on moving the club forwards.

Reaction from supporters is mixed, with a large proportion wanting move so that the club can retain its place in the elite level of the game, while there are a number of fans who see that a move from Stamford Bridge would be a huge emotional loss.

What angered many fans, was the sale of a further 20,000 CPO shares to unknown buyers, in the period after the club announced their intentions on 3 October.

This issue appears to have galvanised a strong sentiment among supporters that the club have tried underhand methods to reach their aims, and this will only strengthen the resolve of those who voted no to the vote that the CPO should retain the freehold.

However this matter resolves itself, it is sure to be a long-running episode of the club's history, and one that will generate comment and debate for many years to come.

Sedgley Park v Ealing - Report

Last weekend I was at Park Lane, Whitefield to see Sedgley Park take on Ealing Trailfinders in National League One. Ealing were unbeaten going into the match, while Sedg had been inconsistent, so it all pointed to an away victory, and that was how it turned out. Limited to 220 words for the report, again, it was a test to fit it all in.

Here is my report as it appeared in The Rugby Paper of 16 October 2011.

Sedgley Park 8 Ealing 38
National League One
Saturday 12 October 2011

Ealing continued their magnificent start to the season with an impressive bonus-point victory over a disappointing Sedgley Park.

Star man, winger Philip Chesters took advantage of sloppy play by the home side to claim a hat-trick to add to his already impressive haul.

Ealing’s intentions to run from wide came early on, Chesters touching down a grubber kick. That was the only score for the best part of half an hour, as each set of forwards tried to find the upper hand, while the backs were happy enough to kick for territory.

Chesters added another on 30, his chip and chase finding the home defence sleeping while he put down between the posts for Nick Hallett to convert.

Not to be outdone, Peter Hodgkinson on Ealing’s right wing collected a cross-field chip to touch down in the corner, while Sedgley’s first half response was a penalty goal from full-back Greg Smith just before half-time.

Outside centre Rory Damant was the beneficiary of a fine dummy by fly half Ben Ward, scoring near the posts, Hallett adding the extras, before tighthead prop Tim Brockett put down from a fine driving lineout maul.

By the time inside centre Matt Riley scored on 67, it was too little too late, as Chesters had already grabbed his hat-trick after intercepting on his own 10 metre line to run through unopposed.

Scorers:
Sedgley Park
Tries: Riley 67
Penalty Goals: Smith 38
Ealing
Tries: Chesters 7 31 63, Hodgkinson 36, Damant 48, Brockett 56
Conversions: Hallett 31 48 56 64

Half-time: 3 - 17
Star Man: Philip Chesters
Attendance: 187
Referee: Paul Knowles

Teams:
Sedgley Park: G Smith, Dutton, Wainwright, Riley, Harrison, Kohler, S Parrott, Birchall, Oxley, Flynn, Venter, McGowan, Lewis, Dew, Crous
Replacements: Harrison, Wright, Hopa, Runciman, Owens
Ealing: Hallett, Hodgkinson, Damant, McLean-Dents, Chesters, Ward, Thompson, Neville, Alexopoulos, Brockett, Gaynor, Gregory, Nilsson, Starling, Evans
Replacements: Moyce, Brown, Fishwick, Grimes, Wardingley

Here is how the game was seen by the Sedgley Park website.

Fylde v Barking - Report

Here is my report from the match between Fylde and Barking in National League One, as it appeared in The Rugby Paper on Sunday 9 October 2011. It was the feature match of the week for National League one in TRP, so was a 520 word piece. The final result wasn't one that could have been predicted, given the start to the season for each club.

Fylde 18 Barking 31

National League One
Saturday 8 October 2011

Barking deservedly took the spoils in this contest at Woodlands having taken the game to Fylde from the very first minute of the match.

After being a man down for the majority of the match, Barking’s Martin Jones was delighted with the overall performance by his team afterwards: “On a run of five losses where we could have won the game, we have managed to turn our defence around in two weeks, stop conceding soft points, and we knew that today against Fylde, they were going to run the ball so we worked hard on our midfield defence” he said.

“This is a new bunch of lads, we lost 24 players after last year, and it was going to take time to blend. It was our target to start well and stay in front, and we managed to do it”

The match started with Fylde on the back-foot, the Barking pack chasing down every ball carrier. This led to early penalties, and the visitors taking a 6-0 lead almost before Fylde had managed to enter the visitors’ half.

The game entered a period of play where physicality came to the fore, with yellow cards shown to Fylde’s Gareth Rawlings, and Barking’s Sean Jones, in separate incidents. 

The first try of the contest went to Barking, Mike Waywell losing possession after a tackle in the midfield, and the visitors were able to work the ball wide to Will Nelson, who passed inside to Charles Broughton, putting down in the corner, Chris Ashwin adding the extras.

Fylde started to come into the game, working the ball well through the phases inside the Barking 22, until possession was lost from a needless handling error.

It was during this period of pressure on the Barking defence that the red card came, Francis Ambrose sent off for a dangerous tackle on Cameron Thompson in the 37^th minute. It was with the resultant penalty that Steve Collins reduced the arrears, before Sam Beaumont touched down from a driving maul, with Collins adding the conversion to go in level at the break.

Fylde took the lead after 60 minutes, Royle benefitting from a cross-field chip by Richard Kenyon, touching down in the corner.

Barking however, showed an extra commitment to make up for being a man down, and came back with a try, Marcus Burcham given the nod by the referee, after chasing a grubber that had been knocked into his path by Kenyon on the wing.

Uncontested scrums came into play, as a result of injuries, and the first half red card, as did several  minutes of extra time played.

The nail in Fylde’s coffin came with a try five minutes from time by Joe Hardy, bursting through a static defensive line, with Ashwin converting.

Fylde’s Mark Nelson admitted afterwards that: “We got what we deserved from the game really, which was nothing. We just have to move on to our next fixture at Cambridge”

Speaking about the commitment shown by his Barking side, Jones added: “We asked for an extra 25% from the 14 men that we had on the field, they committed to that at half-time, and we got the result”

Scorers:
Fylde

Tries: Beaumont 39, Royle 60

Conversions: Collins 40

Penalty Goals: Collins 25 37

Barking

Tries: Broughton 25, Burcham 61, Hardy 80+1

Conversions: Ashwin 25 80+2

Penalty Goals: Ashwin 1 3 66 80+8

Half-time: 13-13
Star Man: Marcus Burcham (Barking)
Referee: Andrew Jackson
Attendance: 624

Teams:

Fylde: Kenyon, Royle, S Briers, Waywell (Binham 45), Brennand, Collins, Depledge (Wallwork 69), Griffiths (Livesey 62) (Wells 80), Loney, Altham (Lavelle 47), Arnold, Ferguson, Rawlings, Thompson, S Beaumont

Barking: Nelson (C Jones 72), Broughton, Henderson, Burcham, Flannery, Ashwin, Parker, Ambrose, Bloomberg, Kavanagh, Burns, Smith, Wood (Sinfield 59), Reynolds (Ambrose 26), Dwyer (S Jones 40+1) (Hardy 69)

Olympic stadium debacle rumbles on

West Ham to remain at Upton Park?

Today's announcement by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OLPC) that they are no longer selling the stadium to West Ham United after the 2012 Games didn't come as any great surprise.

In fact, the surprise in my eyes was that it was the OLPC who made the decision, rather than West Ham. The reason given, that they were unable to continue with the bid due to ongoing legal issues is fair enough, and reasonable under the circumstances.

Football at the Athens Olympic Stadium

It does, however, leave one massive question left unanswered - what WILL happen to the stadium after 2012? Having invested £500 million on the facility means that it can't be allowed to become a white elephant, as in the case of other stadia built for major sporting events in the not too distant past. Think of the Athens Olympics of 2004, or the FIFA World Cups of 2002 and 2010 for example.

While many can cite that much of the funding for the stadium came from public funds, a large amount was also funded privately, and those investors will want a return for that investment, surely.

Designed to hold 25,000 permanent seats on the lower tier, with 55,000 seats in a lightweight construction that can be removed afterwards, the stadium must retain the athletics track, as a part of any agreement to use the stadium post-Games.

The 'English-style' football stadium

For any football club to consider using a stadium with this track around it is complete lunacy. Supporters of football in the UK have watched the sport from close quarters since enclosed stadia were required at the onset of the organised game in the 19th century.

The demolition of Wembley in 2000 removed the last English venue of this nature, and now, only Hampden Park in Glasgow remains as the only major football venue to retain a perimiter track around it's pitch.

The Delle Alpi, now completely redeveloped without the track

You only need to take a look at European football clubs who have redeveloped or built new stadiums to see that athletics tracks do not mix with a good football-watching experience.

The new Juventus stadium - without the track

The mighty Juventus moved recently into their new stadium, the rebuilt Delle Alpi, which itself was built for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. The track around that pitch made it an unloved and underused ground that Juve (and Torino) supporters deserted in droves.

As a result, Torino moved back to the revamped Stadio Communale (which itself was mothballed as a result of the move of both clubs to the Delle Alpi), and Juve decided to redesign the stadium completely, to bring their fans closer to the pitch.

More recently, the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany saw major stadium building and redevelopment prior to the tournament.

Stadia in Munich, Hamburg, Gelsenkirchen, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hannover,  Leipzig and Kaiserslautern were all built or rebuilt, having previously been stadia with athletics facilities. A look now at these grounds will see that they are there purely for football spectating (along with concerts).

The AllianzArena - perfect sightlines for watching football

It's useful to note that the new Allianz Arena in Munich has replaced the Olympiastadion, built as part of the 1972 Olympic Park. For over 30 years, both Bayern and 1860 Munich played to stands where supporters were outside the optimum distance for watching football, yet here we are, with the benefit of seeing others' mistakes, and a major football club is fighting tooth and nail to use a facility with an athletics track.

It appears as though, for West Ham's part, they are only thinking of the bottom line, rather than considering their support, yet are willing to spend millions on consultancy fees, and such like, for a project that, if successful, I am sure will see them doomed to fail.

As for the OLPC, they are left with the fallout of a decision made years ago that an Olympics for London would regenerate a whole swathe of run down estates in the East End. That, my friends, is an argument for another day.

For now, though, think about where you would rather watch your football from.

Sedgley Park v Birmingham - Report

This is my report as it appeared in The Rugby Paper on Sunday 2 October 2011. Having a word limit of 220 to report on a game that had 13 tries in it was difficult, but I think the report gives a succinct enough impression of events. Unfortunately, the headline in the paper the next day that went with the report was 'Eight try Tigers maul abysmal Bees'. It didn't reflect the Birmingham performance at all, but hopefully the report gave a fair enough account.

Sedgley Park 55 Birmingham Bees 34

National League One

Saturday 1 October 2011

Sedgley exorcised the demons from last weekend with eight tries in the late summer sun, during a game that went from end to end.

Having lost the first points to a Dan Hawkes penalty goal, Sedgley took the first half by the scruff of the neck with scores from Simon Parrott, Richard Oxley, Jamie Harrison, and Richard Wainwright.

Birmingham replied with two of their own, from John Lowden and Jack Preece, to keep the pressure on the home side. 

Pick of the first half tries was Sedgleys’s Jamie Harrison, who collected the ball from kick-off, and with the Birmingham winger Jack Pons seemingly unaware of any danger, the Sedgley dangerman put his foot on the gas, powering down the wing, before sidestepping the full back Lowden, and touching down between the posts, giving Greg Smith his first conversion. 

Birmingham though, were always capable of putting the Sedgley defence under pressure, with livewire scrum half Warwick Lahmert at the centre of all the Birmingham plays.

The visitors scored three more times in the second half, through Pons, Lahmert, and Hawkes, although the home side repeated their first half scoring feat, with tries from Harrison, Dom Kohler, Michael Dutton, and Scott Wright.

Birmingham weren’t helped with the sin-binning of Tom Quarrie during the second half, for not moving away from the tackle, but the damage was already done, Sedgley having made enough headway for this bonus point win.

Scorers:

Sedgley Park

Tries: Parrott 11, Oxley 22, Harrison 24 54, Wainwright 33, Kohler 66, Dutton 70, Wright 74

Conversions: Smith 24 33 54 66 70 74

Penalty Goals: Smith 52

Birmingham & Solihull

Tries: Lowden 13, Preece 30, Pons 44, Lahmert 59, Hawkes 80

Conversions: Hawkes 44 59 80

Penalty Goals: Hawkes 4

Half-time: 24-13

Star Man: Louis McGowan

Attendance: 217

Teams:

Sedgley Park: Smith, Dutton, Wainwright, Riley, Harrison, Kohler, S Parrott, Birchall, Oxley, Flynn, Venter, McGowan, Lewis, Dew (Capt), Crous

Replacements: Black, Wright, Woolley, Urmston, Hurst

Birmingham & Solihull: Lowden, Clarke, White, Evans, Pons, Hawkes, Lahmert, Long, Preece (Capt), Darkintas, Quarrie, Todd, Brightwell, Reeves, Earnshaw

Replacements: McMillan, Tua, Farmer, Sadler, Webster

The game as seen by Sedgley Park website.

The game as reported by the Birmingham Post.

What next for sport on the BBC?

The news today from the BBC that they are cutting their spending on sports broadcasting rights by a further 15% poses questions for the millions of sports fans in the UK who rely on the Beeb providing them with their live TV and radio sport.

The reduction announced today includes confirmation that the BBC will share with BSkyB the rights to Formula One after the current exclusive contract ends. How this will work remains to be seen, but it is thought that each round of the F1 season will be screened exclusively by one of the broadcasters, with the other taking highlights.

Picture courtesy autoblog.com

As early as March this year, motor sports commentators were moved to spell out the move away from exclusive rights for the BBC when the current contract ends in 2013, and it is thought that this will only lead to a stronger market share for BSkyB in the sports broadcasting portfolio.

The same announcement also states that there will be reductions "to some smaller sports events". Without being specific in any way, it does state that sports that are "listed events" or those which "bring the nation together"will remain with the Corporation.


The BBC Trust were moved to reassure the public with an announcement to allay fears that there would be the loss of significant sporting coverage -

Sports coverage plays a major role on the BBC’s main television channels, and is central to delivering some of the BBC’s public purposes. However the acquisition of sports rights can be expensive, and BBC management has identified an ambition to save 15 per cent in this area. While it is not for the Trust to decide which individual sports rights are bought by the BBC, we have ensured BBC management’s approach is guided by the strategic principles we have set in this area: that, subject to value for money and affordability, the BBC should continue to prioritise those sports and events which have greatest national resonance, and in particular the events listed by the Government, as well as providing an outlet for minority sports

Although the BBC will be keeping its 'crown jewels', a worrying part of the announcement was that as well as the reduction in spending on sports rights, it also announced today that there will be a reduction in local sports coverage in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For sports fans in these countries, the access to local broadcasting is a necessity that just cannot be replaced by central UK-wide sports reporting.

Picture courtesy racingdiary.co.uk

A further confirmation of the importance which the BBC places on sports output, was that BBC Two would be the main home of live sport for the Corporation.

While that is fine for a late night finish at the World Snooker Championship, will it be good enough for the FA Cup Final, or the Men's Final at Wimbledon (or the Women's Final, for that matter)?

Although television sport is a major player in the BBC's portfolio, radio has a major part to play in its standing as a top quality producer of live sports broadcasts.

Today's announcement has said that Radio 5 Live, although continuing to "Maintain sport output at current levels", will reduce its costs through sending smaller production teams to outside events. It remains to be seen whether this will have an effect on the quality of broadcasts. We shall wait and see.