Newcastle Falcons vs Exeter Chiefs Programme

ALL OUR
YESTERDAYS
Kingsley Hyland’s regular
historical feature returns,
telling the story of games
played 40, 35 and 20 years
ago.
LEFT
Brian Patrick
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
40 years ago – November 26, 1983
Preston Grasshoppers 15-15 Gosforth
Prior to the introduction of the RFU leagues later in the decade
the County Championship remained the premier domestic
rugby competition and an important stepping stone on the
road to international selection.
With the New Zealand All Blacks on tour and scheduled to play
the North at Gateshead Stadium there was an added incentive
for Northumberland players to shine.
Club fixtures were still played throughout the County Championship
season and this had a major impact on selection at
Gosforth as the team travelled to Preston Grasshoppers, who
were one of the top clubs in Lancashire at the time.
Although the club’s fortunes had steadily declined since the
second John Player Cup win in 1977 it is a sign of Gosforth’s
great strength in depth that they could take what amounted to
a second team to Preston and eke out a creditable draw.
Prior to the introduction of the RFU leagues later in the decade
the County Championship remained the premier domestic
rugby competition and an important stepping stone on the
road to international selection.
Ordinarily, England triallist Brian Patrick would have been with
the county team for their crucial group match against Devon
at the County Ground, but he was coming back from injury and
testing his recovery in a club match.
Gosforth managed only one try through Andy Green, who
by this was playing most of his rugby in the club’s Veterans
team. Patrick’s left boot proved decisive with two penalties
and a conversion whilst Newcastle Polytechnic student Paul
Jamieson also kicked a penalty.
The Gosforth team was as follows:
B.Patrick; D.Weaver; H.Patrick; S.Archer; P.Jamieson; A.Green;
T.Cleghorn; G.Humphreys; K.Lynch; E.Williams; H.Nicholson;
M.Hutchinson; D.Davidson; M.O’Hara; R.Anderson (capt).
As for the county match, this was a ‘winner takes all’ sort of
game as the victor would avoid relegation at the expense of
the loser. In the event it was far from a classic, played on a
sodden pitch after heavy rain.
Devon were the more enterprising side but could not win
enough quick ball to give their backs a platform as Northumberland
won 19-11 to retain their place in the top tier of the
County Championship.
The Northumberland team was as follows:
S.Macrae (Northern); J.Pollock (Gosforth); R.Breakey (Gosforth);
W.Telford (Alnwick); S.Gustard (Gosforth); D.Johnson
(Gosforth); G.Sturgeon (Tynedale); C.White (Gosforth);
T.Bell (Alnwick); J.Curry (Gosforth); S.Bainbridge; T.Roberts
(Gosforth) (capt); S.Edwards (Gosforth); S.Byrne (Gosforth);
G.Smallwood (Gosforth).
In addition to the 11 Gosforth players in the starting XV, hooker
John Chappell was playing for Durham and Derek Briggs and
Mark Richardson for Cumbria, who would also doubtless have
included Neil McDowell but for injury.
35 YEARS AGO – NOVEMBER 26,
1988
GOSFORTH 16-14 LONDON SCOTTISH
When the RFU leagues were finally introduced after years of
soul searching, clubs were told which opponents they had to
play to fulfil their league obligations, but not when they had to
play them. This required club fixture secretaries to ‘negotiate’
the fixtures in a way that enabled the clubs to retain their
most attractive ‘friendly’ games.
By some strange quirk Gosforth found themselves having to
play the three ‘Exiles’ sides – London Welsh, London Irish and
London Scottish – on successive Saturdays in November.
The team had started the league season poorly. They had lost
at home to Bedford (16-17) and at Blackheath (10-34) and
Coventry (12-19), and had secured just won win – 16-4 at home
to Richmond – prior to the three Exiles fixtures.
Gosforth were able to dominate London Welsh for the first
hour of the game at the Great North Road before allowing
Welsh to run in four tries. The home team were grimly hanging
on to a 34-26 lead when the final whistle sounded.
The following week they came a cropper 7-35 at London Irish
so that the home fixture with London Scottish became pivotal
if a relegation battle from Division Two was to be avoided.
Although fly-half Peter Clark gave the home side a 3-0 lead
with a third-minute penalty, Scottish dominated the first three
quarters of the match as Gosforth dropped off tackles and
made numerous handling errors.
Scottish responded to Clark’s penalty with two tries. First,
full-back Grant Corbett crossed following a free-flowing move,
and then hooker Rob Howe went over following a move that
originated with wing Lindsay Renwick’s break from his own 22,
which exposed the home side’s defensive frailties.
Fortunately for Gosforth goal-kicking was to prove the visitors’
Achilles heel, and both conversions were missed. Nick Grecian
did succeed with a penalty and Clark added a second penalty,
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
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