Yes it’s a pretty good hand in poker but it’s also what we have this weekend. This weekend sees a full set of home fixtures; Saturday and Sunday including the County U20s.

A quick review of last weekend saw a number of matches postponed or cancelled due to frozen pitches. The biggest loss of the weekend being the 1st XV league game. This was postponed and has been rescheduled for this Saturday. With Wheatley Hills and Middlesbrough both winning, this is our game in hand but we need to win it to stay a clear win ahead. The 2nds and 3rds both played Stockton; our local rivals and both won convincingly, 90 : 7 and 68 nil respectively. Thanks to Campus school who had the only playable pitches in the area and a credit they are to the school. The youth section matches were in the also hit by the weather and looking at the updates they were all postponed. Remember that there is an indoor training facility available on a Sunday morning for mini teams at Oxygym due to our collaboration with them. Mini coaches and managers please see Colin Snowdon and/or Wayne Finney for further details. We also now have the all weather surface for minis to train on a Sunday, but again see Colin or Wayne and remember – no studs and no boots!

So onto this weekend, 1sts, 2nds and 3rds are all at home on Saturday – busy day – and there is a Farmhouse Chicken lunch on offer for £3.95 before the match. So by my reckoning for just over a tenner, you can watch a top quality game and have a nice hot lunch with a pint. Now that’s what I call a Saturday afternoon and you don’t have to only have one pint you know – but be responsible! Now then on Sunday we have the U16s and u13s at home followed by the Durham County U20s v Northumberland in the afternoon. Great weekend all round for the club and for rugby lovers, what better place to be.

I will be updating separately about the Billy Burner and the Billy Boiler Fund. The good news is we reached our target of 16 x £100 for the burners and we have already started on the boiler fund.

I would like to clarify a point that I know has been discussed by some in the club and to avoid the ‘ill-informed’ ill-informing others I would like to state the clubs position by providing the facts. It is not the club policy to charge teams for the use of the facilities, in fact quite the reverse. However the club does have to manage it’s costs and facilities prudently. In recent years it has been custom and practice for junior teams to hold a Christmas Dinner at the club; usually with parents. This has proved to be a good mid-season get together, team bonding and social activity enjoyed by many. The club has offered a 2 course meal for a modest amount, and a formerly laid out Christmas table etc. This year we were approached by a team who wanted to use the main room on a Wednesday evening (a busy Youth Section night) for a fund raiser; charging an entry fee but they didn’t want the dinner but wanted to provide their own catering to save on costs. Looking at this holistically we would need to move everyone else into the snug, we would lose are normal Wednesday food revenue and we would need to put on extra staff. The policy we have always had is when catering is provided outside of the club we charge a nominal £30 for cleaning up afterwards. This does not even go anywhere to cover the lost revenue and extra staff as this should be covered by the bar profits. As it was the team in question opted to move their function to a pub in the centre of Stockton without any further discussion. I have no different people will have differing opinions as is their right but the above is the policy and the facts.

So to finish off, let’s all enjoy a great weekend of rugby and Come on Billingham – keep on ruckin!