That Friday Feeling Gary

Three to watch!

Devaney

Three in a Row!

Bedford Blues come to Paton Fields on Saturday for what is sure to be a big test for the Caldy Ravers. After 3 wins in a row, and 4 out of 5, Caldy have surged up the table and now stand 8th in the table with 27 points. Saturday will be a very tough game with Bedford Blues also on a run of 3 wins in a row, and the two teams are the form teams in the Championship at the moment. Who would have thought we would be saying that Caldy are the form team in the Championship?

Last week saw Caldy away at Nottingham under the floodlights on Friday night. A great win with Caldy in control for most of the match and gaining all 5 points. After the disappointment of losing at home to Nottingham in the dying moments at the beginning of the season it shows how the Ravers have been learning their lessons during the season. Lots of credit to the coaches and players!

Bedford Rugby Club was founded in 1886 after the merger of Bedford

Rovers (1876) and Bedford Swifts (1882) and they have had 41 Internationals play for their country whilst playing for Bedford and 3 England Captains. In total another 83 internationals have played for Bedford at some point in their careers. A famous Club with a lot of illustrious former players making for a rich history. This will be Bedford’s first ever visit to Paton Fields and let us give them a warm welcome from the Bank.

The RFU forwarded relevant and interesting statistics regarding the Championship this week. Nick Royle is the 3rd highest try scorer in the division with 8 tries and Bedford’s Ian Adamson is in 2nd place with 9 tries. After grabbing tries in the last few games behind the powerful Caldy pack Ollie Hearn has 7 tries and also features in the top 10 try scorers. Well done to the evergreen Nick Royle for challenging at the top of the try scorers table yet again!

Caldy have the 4th highest average attendance in the Championship with an average gate of 1,220 and the club with the highest average attendance is Bedford with 2,998. When Caldy visited Goldington Road in September we lost a thriller by 52 – 29 points. The Ravers have learnt a lot since those early games when it was about adapting to a faster pace of rugby. Our Alacadoos and supporters who were at Goldington Road that day thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the Bedford traditional Ladies Day, when everyone was asked to wear pink including the Caldy hierarchy. The big controversy of the week has been the RFU announcing the change to the tackle height for next season. Certainly it has generated strong feelings amongst community rugby who are struggling to see how it will work. It is hard to comment without seeing the supporting evidence but the big challenge for us will be having players in the 2nd team tackling below the waist and in the 1st XV below the shoulder line. I am not sure how players can move from one team to the other and change tackle technique so quickly but hopefully the RFU had already considered these issues before announcing the changes. We will have to wait and see what comes out of the current debate and hopefully it wont act as a deterrent to people playing community rugby.

Our players need to be fitter than ever to play at such a high standard, and to compete with full time professionals and each month there is a fitness challenge between the squad. At the end of their individual gym sessions in January the players have been doing a timed 1000 metre challenge on rowing machines, and send their times in. The leader as I write this is Ryen Spencer – Wolf with an amazing 2 minutes 58 seconds. If you have ever tried the challenge, you will agree to beat 3 minutes is extremely difficult! Players are rated against each other by position and tables show how each player has done – a great idea and I am sure no one wants to be near the bottom of a table.

Let us give the Caldy Ravers great support from the Bank tomorrow and remember to keep it positive with no shouting at the referee or opposition. At Caldy, we want to win but keeping the spirit of rugby with respect to others, is also key to what we are as a rugby club.

Also, a reminder not to park on Pikes Hey Road if you are going to watch the game. We have plenty of parking room at Paton Fields and please show consideration for our neighbours by not parking on their road.

2022/23 Player Sponsors

Adam Aigbokhae Sponsor

ALAN ROBERTS

Adam Kelly Sponsor

SPONSORSHIP AVAILABLE

Alex Gaughan Sponsor

SPONSORSHIP AVAILABLE

Ben Eaves Sponsor

EARLAM AND PARTNERS (EAP) LTD

Ben Jones Sponsor

MCL COATINGS LTD

Callum Ridgway Sponsor WHITEGATES

Chris Pilgrim Sponsor BBRS

Dan Bibby

Sponsor BATHGATE

Dave Jones Sponsor BBRS

Eliott Gourlay Sponsor

YOUR BUSINESS LTD

Ezra Hinchcliffe

Sponsor

ANDY BLACKSTOCK

Harrison Crowe Sponsor

GROSVENOR MARQUEES

Jack Parker Sponsor

GRAEME MCGAFFNEY

Jack Riley Sponsor

SPONSORSHIP AVAILABLE

Nottingham 17 - 29 Caldy

Unfortunately, we had no-one at Nottingham last Friday, to do a match report, so a big thank you to Nottingham for letting us use theirs. “With the temperature approaching zero, Nottingham were beaten convincingly by Championship new boys Caldy, who came into the game in high spirits having won their last two, including a dramatic 26-24 victory over top of the table Ealing Trailfinders. The game started with both teams looking lively, though it was the visitors who got on the board first 10 minutes in. They kicked a penalty won deep in Nottingham territory to the corner. They then turned the lineout into a driving maul and pushed their way over the line.

Nottingham responded immediately, though, working the ball all the way up the pitch. Ryan Olowofela slipped through a gap in the defence right on the try line to finish off the move and level up the score.

The rest of the half was very much played in the centre of the park, with neither team really able to carve out many clear-cut chances. That was until right before half time when Caldy won a penalty and kicked it to the corner to set up another driving maul. Ollie Hearn eventually got the ball over the line to give the visitors the lead heading into the break.

The second half started the way the first finished, with the Ravers putting points on the board. The scrum half, Chris Pilgrim spotted a gap in the Green and White defensive line and scampered through it to extend the lead.

Npttingham responded well though. Having just come off the bench, Morgan Bunting did well to dance around a number of would-be tacklers to break away from the defence. He was eventually caught at about the 22, but Nottingham kept countering, and a few moments later David Williams finished in the corner to slice Caldy’s lead to just seven points.

The home side created a few more chances in the following minutes, but Caldy stayed strong in defence and were able to stop them from becoming anything more and even managed to get three points back with penalty from 20 metres out.

They then put the game to bed with just over 10 minutes remaining. They rumbled their way through the Nottingham defence with another driving maul. Sam Dickinson was the man who got the ball down over the line to score Caldy’s bonus point try and extend their lead to 17.

Nottingham did find a consolation try in the closing minutes when the captain Josh Poullet darted through a gap in the defence and passed it over to Michael Green to beat the last man. It wasn’t enough to secure a bonus point though, and the final whistle blew moments later.

The result sees Caldy leapfrog Nottingham in the league. Craig Hammond’s men find themselves in ninth place ahead of their clash with Doncaster Knights next weekend.”