That Friday Feeling – 14th April 2023

Caldy Seek an Unlikely Double!

This weekend sees Caldy play Ealing Trailfinders away at Vallis Way. In the first game Caldy won 26 – 24 at Paton Fields in what was undoubtedly Caldy Rugby Club’s greatest ever victory.  In the Friday Feeling before the game the comment was made that despite the disparity in budgets at the end of the day it would be 15 players against 15, and we could be sure that our boys would give their all. And they most certainly did!

Ealing Trailfinders are top of the table by only one point from Jersey and with only 3 league games remaining in the season, and the two teams to play each other in Jersey, neither team can afford to slip up. The disappointment for Ealing must be the decision not to allow them into the Premiership because they are unable to gain planning permission to increase their seating capacity to accommodate over 10,000 spectators in the required time period. I am not sure how quickly you can obtain planning permission in the Greater London area, but if it is anything like Wirral then it seems an unfair requirement to set a time limit on obtaining planning permission.

For those that read Rolling Maul Forum there has been an interesting thread headed “the venerable Peter Higgins is incredulous”. The author, Big Eddie, explained to an incredulous Peter Higgins how the Championship would play out at the end of the season. To give a flavour at the time he said: a team may be relegated from the Championship or not, a team that currently doesn’t exist may be parachuted into the Championship next season, the winner of this seasons Championship won’t be promoted and will stay in the division unless they decide that they will be Welsh, and there are rumours that a Premiership team may opt to join the Championship next season topped off with no one knows how many Premiership teams will be around next season. No wonder Peter Higgins was incredulous!

What we do know is that for Caldy this has been an incredible season! To play the giants of English rugby and to stand toe to toe with them and to gain massive victories has been awe inspiring. The hospitality of clubs, playing at great stadiums against internationals and stars of the future has been a marvellous experience for our players. Our home crowd has been magnificent and has inspired our players and intimidated our opponents.

Saturday will see us play on the 4G pitch at Vallis Way against one of the best teams in the country – and a shame they aren’t able to prove that against Premiership sides next season. The team to play at Vallis Way is: Nathan Rushton (c), Ethan Caine, Joe Jones, Sam Olyott, Tom Sanders, Reubon Birch, Nyle Davidson, Calum Ridgway, Nye Thomas, Rhys Hayes, Mike Cartmill, Mike Barlow, Dan Bibby, Louis Beer, Elliot Gourlay and subs are: Adam Aigbokhae, Tom Clarke, Ryan Higginson, Harrison Crowe, Tom Parry, Joe Murray, Ezra Hinchcliffe, Will Robinson.

Once again it 15 against 15 and another chance for our players to make history and to claim what would have been considered an unlikely double at the beginning of the season. It is good to welcome Will Robinson back from his Scotland U20 duties and Nye Thomas from his England U20 duties.

Our 2nd XV has no fixture as Rossendale have cried off. It is a great shame that so many opponents call off games against our 2nd team, but the good news is that they will be travelling to Jersey next weekend to play the Jersey amateur side. After the invasion of Jersey by people from Wirral supporting Caldy in early March, Jersey very kindly invited our 2ndteam over to play against their amateur side. A great honour and a chance to play against a very good side.