That Friday Feeling – 1st December 2023

The demise of Jersey left Caldy’s 1st XV kicking their heels last weekend and so the focus turned to Caldy’s 2nd XV who travelled to take on Macclesfield’s 1st xv in the Cheshire Cup. An energetic performance by Caldy brought a satisfying 57-28 victory against their level 5 opponents which must have helped Will Sanderson, Luke Cox and the evergreen Nick Royle push their way into tomorrow’s squad for the fixture at Paton Field against Bedford Blues.

Bedford Blues are one of the best attacking sides in the Championship with a quicksilver backline and an all action gameplan which makes for brilliant entertainment. Last season’s home fixture produced a 10 try thriller with the Ravers just edging the contest 36 to 28 in what was possibly the best game of 15 a side rugby ever staged at Paton Field.

Tomorrow’s encounter is sure to be a feast of running rugby and a big vociferous home support will go a long way to help the Ravers get a result.

Matt Cairns has selected the following squad for Saturday’s 1st XV Championship fixture at Paton Field against Bedford Blues which kicks off at 2 pm.

7. C Booth 8. JJ Dickinson 9. C Pilgrim 10. L Barker 11. N Royle 12. M Barlow 13. C Wilkinson

14. W Robinson 15. R Hayes 16. S Rogers 17. M Gallagher 18. J Sprotson 19 M Gerrard

20. W Sanderson 21. J Murray 22. R Maasi White 23. L Cox

Tonight, the 2nd XV travel to Hare Lane to take on Chester in a Cotton Trader’s Premier League clash. This 1st v 3rd clash which kicks off at 7.30 pm at Hare Lane is likely to be one of Caldy’s toughest of league fixtures this season.

Since 2019 the fixture between these teams at Hare Lane has always been played under lights on a Friday evening, generally in front of a good home crowd. However, somewhat unfortunately despite the best efforts of both clubs to reschedule the fixture, last season’s corresponding fixture was not played due to a clash with Caldy’s 2nd xv fixture in Jersey.

This derby fixture is always closely fought and a strong Chester side with an always partisan home support will be keen to end Caldy’s long winning streak. Caldy’s young Ravers will need to front up with a sizeable and vocal travelling support.

This weekend’s raffle is being run by Caldy Girls Rugby who are fundraising for a bespoke girls fit matchday rugby kit for each age grade, so please give generously!  Our Caldy Girls rugby only had 4 or 5 girls playing rugby 5 years ago and now we have almost 50 – our goal is to have 100 girls playing rugby at junior levels so we can regularly get full teams out across all 4 age grades.

We’re really proud to have developed our players to the extent that we have several girls representing Caldy RFC at county level, and two of our u18s have been selected for the England Rugby & Sale Sharks COE.  Recruitment remains our biggest challenge, and we need to spread the word about the Caldy Girls rugby set up so if you know anyone who might be interested, please encourage them to come along.

On Sunday, our u18 Caldy Girls are playing at home, Caldy v Broughton Park, 1.00 pm kick off.