President’s Welcome Graham Armitage

A very warm welcome to you all today including our visitors from Bedford Blues on this their first ever visit I believe to Paton Field. We have already faced the Blues earlier this season away from home and were initially given a salutary lesson in attacking rugby before coming back into the game in the second half, eventually losing by 52 points to 29.

Having struggled in the early part of the season, Caldy’s results have improved markedly since, particularly from December onwards with historic wins against Cornish Pirates and even more impressively against Ealing a few weeks ago. Since then further wins have also followed against Richmond and again last Friday night against Nottingham away, with Caldy accumulating 19 league points from a possible 25 over the last few weeks. Hopefully this may indicate that the squad is starting to acclimatise to the pace and demands of Championship rugby. Credit for this must go not only to the players and the coaching team headed up by Matt and Gareth but also to the incredible level of support which has more than doubled since last season and seems at times to have provided an extra man on the pitch. Whilst today’s game will no doubt be another tough encounter, it will be an opportunity for Caldy with home advantage to test themselves once again against a top level team and judge our recent performances.

Bedford Blues have an illustrious rugby history having been formed in 1886 and played against the likes of Stade Francais and the Barbarians before the 1900’s. Subsequently they were awarded a fixture against the All Blacks around 10 years later, and, whilst losing in front of a record crowd, recorded one of the most famous days in their history. Bedford have since maintained an impressive fixture list and at the advent of the league structure in the 1990’s were top of the tree winning the Powergen Challenge Cup and several other accolades shortly after. It is probably fair to say that at the turn of the millennium they struggled to maintain this standard but have seldom relinquished a grip on top level rugby having played at Championship level for many years now. They have provided over the years numerous players to the England team and in Budge Rodgers had a British Lion who captained England on many occasions and whom some of our older fans will still remember with affection. Whatever happens today it is an absolute privilege