Wilmslow Rugby Club are back on the training field in anticipation of the new season kicking off.
Training for the new season, which starts on September 1, is now well underway at the Memorial Ground and the turnout for pre-season training has rarely been as good.
Rick Jones starts his first season as head coach after taking over from Brendan Thomas in January. He joined Wilmslow last season in a player-coach role after more than 500 appearances and four years as captain at Macclesfield.
He is ably assisted by Rick Hughes, who has plenty of experience playing in the backs in the higher echelons of national club rugby and for the county, and Craig Cooper, who was himself no mean performer in National 3 North for Stockport.
Cooper’s conditioning training sessions have, by all accounts, been enjoyable and well attended and have got the players to a good level of early season fitness.
The Wolves will be looking to improve on last season’s performance, which saw them win 15 out of 26 league matches, their best return yet in North 1 West, the sixth tier of the game.
But this season’s league looks an even tougher proposition. Birkenhead Park and Kendal, both relegated from the National Leagues, reappear on the Wolves’ fixture list for the first time in a generation.
Warrington, who won the South Lancashire and Cheshire League by a distance last season, will be no mugs at this level, while Broughton Park and Wigton are back up again after an absence of just one season.
They will both, no doubt, remember that in the latter stages of 2011/12, it was defeats against Wilmslow which pushed them down to a lower level.
The club’s second string, the Vikings, did well to recover from a poor start last autumn to stay up in the Bateman Premier League and will be looking to consolidate in what is a very tough competition.
They are up against the reserve sides and contracted players of Caldy, Preston Grasshoppers, Fylde, Sedgely Park and Macclesfield, all of whose first teams play at least two levels higher than the Wolves in the RFU National Leagues.
The third string Developmentals finished last season high up in Division 3 South, while the Ravens move up to Division 4 South.
Back in the top rank, nearly all of last season’s players are still available to Wolves captain Mike Black and his vice-captain Ben Day. But to add to the quality within there has been no shortage of new arrivals.
Gritty Scotsman Andy Walker and the evergreen Bob MacCallum are probably favourites to form the important half-back hinge but in Ollie McCall,
Callum Westaway and Ollie Wilkinson, there are talented young players awaiting their chance in the wings.
Given the nature of modern rugby, it would be surprising if they weren’t seen at some stage during the season.
Nor is the cupboard bare when it comes to the second row. Nobody’s likely to usurp the formidable Mike Clifford as automatic first choice but in Alex Kei, Harrison Lewis, Simon Erskine and the young Adam Hewitt, there’s a surfeit of decent players to choose from.
As captain, Mike Black is virtually certain of his place in the back row, providing he stays fit, but in the well-thought of Alex Taylor, a resurgent James Keys, a fit-again Dan Wright, Dominic Clancy and Jones himself, who showed last season he still has a bit of mileage in him, there will be fierce competition for places.
Jack Walmsley and Jordan Ayrey will probably resume as first-choice props but the arrival of Adam Taher from Eccles and Simeon Meek, a former Macclesfield colt from Buxton, adds some depth to the front row.
And then there’s the nuggety Andy Vassell, whose scrummaging has more than once dug team-mates out of a hole.
The outside backs too look to be a potential source of strength. Day, Sam Cutts and Lawrence James all know the way to the try line. McCall will be a threat at full-back if that’s where he ends up playing and Hughes and Cooper are hardly past it in midfield.
Players like Angus Crawford and Harry Patch are also out to make the breakthrough to first team rugby this year.
It is also gratifying that so many of last season’s colts and Wilmslow High School side have joined the senior section.
The importance of good rugby at the school cannot be over-estimated.
In recent years, it has had a positive impact on the strength of young players coming into the club’s senior section.
Callum Westaway will surely by competing for a regular Wolves or Vikings place and the progress of others such as Rob Taylor, Wilf Noden, Matt Burgess, Charlie Leddy, Tommy Wilkinson, James Venables will be keenly monitored.
Many of these will start in the Developmental side, playing Division 3 South rugby.
This team is now a serious side with a mixture of youth and experience, keen to do well in the league and to produce decent young players for the higher teams.
The older players, such as captain Matt Potter and Alex McLennan, himself a former High School pupil when it was known as Harefield, will really have some promising young talent to bring on.
Jones, Hughes and Cooper have been around the rugby scene for long enough not to make any rash predictions but if there was a hint of optimism it wouldn’t be surprising.
“All of last season’s key players are available again,” said Jones.
“There’s a core of experienced players, who have been around the block, the younger ones, such as Ollie McCall, Adam Hewitt and Alex Taylor will all have developed from last season’s experience and Harrison Lewis is back from South Wales.
“A year ago, we were possibly a bit short of numbers and lacked strength in depth in certain positions. With the return to fitness of the likes of Dan Wright and James Keys and the new arrivals, it does look as though altogether we could be just a bit stronger.
“The retention of so many players, some of whom could be capable of playing at higher levels, means that as a group we start the season knowing each other so much better but it also says a lot for the club’s positive welcoming atmosphere and the attractive style of play.
“Generally, people enjoy playing at Wilmslow and one thing that is certain is that during a course of a season, through absence, injuries and good play, over 40 players will have the opportunity to appear for the Wolves.”
Senior training is on Tuesday and Thursday nights starting at 7pm and as Wilmslow is an open community club, as ever, new players are always welcome.
Off the pitch, there has been something of a ‘changing of the guard’. Club stalwart and ex-captain Nigel Day has been elected president, Rob Milner takes over as club secretary from the timeless Barry Fisher and Ric Noden and Mark McCall join the committee. Jon Hitch moves aside to become executive chairman.
Work on an additional mini pitch at the Bollin river end of the ground is under way and fund raising for the next major project – to modernise the floodlights – are underway.
It’s early days yet but Wilmslow Rugby seems set to enter the new season in good heart and with bright optimism.
After two early warm-up matches against Sandbach and Macclesfield, the Wolves take on Altrincham Kersal on August 31 in a Cheshire Cup first-round tie and the following week they start their league campaign at home to Kirkby Lonsdale.
