Gazette Sport

Dalesmen prepared for a challenging campaign

9:37am Thursday 2nd September 2010

ILKLEY Rugby Club’s first team may have been relegated last season but their director of rugby Tom Gillon is under no illusions about how hard the forthcoming season is going to be.

The Dalesmen start their campaign in Yorkshire Division One with a trip to Malton & Norton on Saturday (3pm), and Gillon said: “We know they are an honest, hard-working side and they will give us a tough match. Every game in this division will be tough.”

Gillon has been pleased with how pre-season has gone, and added: “We have a lot of competition for places and we are ready to go. There will be some debutants.”

As many as 25 players were believed to be in the frame for a first-team spot, backing up Gillon’s quote.

Ilkley continued their preparations for the first league match by emphatically defeating old friends Yarnbury at Brownberrie Lane last Thursday evening.

The warm-up contained a hatful of tries, the majority of them being scored by the Dalesmen. Yarnbury were unfortunately relegated from Yorkshire Division One last season or they would have been on Ilkley’s fixture list this term.

Their relegation came as a result of player registration irregularities caused by naivety rather then any intended deception.

This illustrates the importance of compliance and the need to be totally accurate with all documentation.

In this amateur world of sport there is a need to be 100 per cent professional in administration. The penalties for not being so are fierce and punishing.

The Dalesmen were geared up for a final trial match on Saturday with even older friends and nearer neighbours Old Otliensians but, for reasons which are not entirely clear, ’ensians pulled out of the fixture at 24 hours’ notice, leaving Ilkley without a game.”

The first team’s league fixture against Keighley, scheduled for Saturday, September 18 at Utley, has been re-arranged as a home fixture so that it can be played as a double-header, Ilkley having been drawn at home to play Keighley in the Yorkshire Shield.

Shield ties must be played by September 15 but the clubs have been given dispensation to play it three days later. The home league fixture due for December 18 will now be played at Utley.

The switch doesn’t give the Ilkley club any respite from the development project because the power will already be switched off ahead of the demolition process, which will be under way the following Monday. Bar and catering will therefore be at Ilkley Cricket Club, just across Denton Road.

Those who are left out of the first-team reckoning this weekend will provide the platform for a strong second team.

Their opportunities will surely come as the long rugby season stretches through winter and into spring. The second XV visit Old Crossleyans for a tasty-looking league opener.

The final home match which will use the existing clubhouse and changing rooms is against Knottingley on September 11.

This match and the pre-match hospitality is to say thank you to the many sponsors of the club who place advertising boards around the ground, sponsor player positions and place advertising in the match programme.

Over 120 invitations have been sent out, showing just what support and goodwill there exists for the club in the town and throughout the Wharfe valley.

If any sponsor has not yet replied, they are asked to contact Ron Obank on 01943-603953 as soon as possible.

This day will be a little piece of history for Ilkley Rugby Club in a year that will provide the most momentous changes in the club’s long and illustrious history.

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