Head
Coach: James Ford
James Ford began his
career as a head coach with York in 2015 and has remained with the club ever
since. He guided them into the League One play-offs in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and
then in 2018 they won automatic promotion by finishing top of the league. And
each year that he has been in charge they have reached at least Round 5 of the
Challenge Cup.
In 2017 Toronto
Wolfpack won all 15 of their League One Fixtures but Ford’s York team caused a
huge upset beating them in the League One Super 8s.
As a player he was
usually in the backs although he did also play at fullback and half-back. His
career started with Fev in 2003, making 34 appearances in 3 years. In 2005 he
went on loan to Sheffield Eagles and then spent the following three years there,
establishing himself as a regular first team member, before moving to Super
League with Castleford in 2009. In 2010 he joined Widnes, and in April 2011 he
transferred to York where he has remained ever since and when he retired from
playing at the end of 2014 moved into the head coach position.
Captain: Tim Spears
The former Fev captain made is now in his 17th season as a
professional player. Although he was a Fev supporter as a kid he made his début
with Castleford in 2003. In 2004 he went on loan to both Dewsbury and Batley
and signed for Batley in 2005 where he remained until he came to Rovers in
2009. He was a vital player in Fev’s four successive seasons topping the
Championship from 2010 to 2013.
He became Fev captain in 2013 and remained so until he joined
York in 2017.
If he plays today it will be Tim’s 401st career appearance.
New
Signings for 2020
Compared to many other Championship clubs York have
signed comparatively fewer new players this year.
Chris
Clarkson, prop, has been signed from Castleford
Tigers. His career started in 2010 with Leeds where he remained until the end
of the 2015 season although he did play for Hunslet on dual reg (2013 and 2014)
and for Widnes on loan (2015). In 2016 he moved to Hull KR and spent 3 years
there before joining Castleford. In 2011 and 2012 he played for the England
Knights.
James
Green, prop, has moved to York from Bradford
Bulls. He was at Hull KR from 2012 to 2018 although his professional début came
playing on dual reg for Workington in 2012. The same year he also played on
dual reg for Batley. In 2013 he made dual reg appearances for Gateshead and
loan appearances for Fev. In 2017 he joined Leigh and played for Sheffield on
dual reg as well. In 2018 he joined Castleford and played for Halifax on dual reg and Bradford, on
loan, before joining Bradford in 2019.
Ben
Johnston, scrum-half, started out with
Castleford in 2012 and had a loan spell with York in that year and a loan spell
with Dewsbury and a dual reg spell with York in 2013. He was signed by Halifax
in 2014 and had been there for 6 seasons before returning to York for2020. In
2015 he played for Ireland.
Jimmy
Keinhorst, centre or second row, has been
signed from Hull KR. He was at Leeds Rhinos from 2012 to 2018 during which timed
he also played for Hunslet (dual reg 2013 & 2015), Wakefield (loan 2014)
and Widnes (loan 2018). He is a German international but he was born in Leeds,
his father being a lecturer at Leeds Met University. He has three brothers who
have also played for the German international team. In 2007 all four brothers
were in the same German team that beat the Czech Republic 44-22! In 2011 Jimmy
played for the GB Students team.
Will
Sharp, wing or fullback, has joined York
from Halifax. His career began with Harlequins RL (London Broncos) in 2008 and
moved to Hull FC in 2010. He then signed for Fev in 2012 moving onto Halifax in
2016. Despite being in his 13th professional year, he is a rarity in the modern
game having never played for more than one club in a season. Also rare is the
fact that Will was born in Nigeria.
Danny
Washbrook, second row or centre, signed from
Hull FC. He brings a great deal of Super League experience (more than 300
games) to the squad. His career started with Hull in 2005 and then he moved to
Wakefield in 2012, returning to Hull in 2016. Last year he also played for
Doncaster on dual reg. He could well be classed as a utility player having also
played games through his career at stand-off, hooker and loose forward.
Dual
Registration and loan signings
York have Reiss Butterworth (hooker) on
loan from Huddersfield.
York have dual registration arrangements with
Castleford Tigers and Heworth ARL. Lewis Carr (Castleford winger) has played
for York in 2020 and Heworth pair Myles Harrison and AJ Towse played for York
in the pre-season game against Fev in January.
The
Fev connection
In the current York
squad are four players who have previously played for Fev. Jordan Baldwinson played 78 times for Fev from 2015 to 2017
although he was never contracted to Fev. All those appearances were either on
loan (2015) or dual reg (2016 and 2017) from Leeds Rhinos. James Green made 3 appearances for Fev in 2013 on loan from Hull
KR. Will Sharp was a Fev player from
2012 to 206 making 81 appearances, scoring 60 tries and 5 hat-tricks. Last, but
certainly not least there is Tim Spears
who was at Fev from 2009 to 2016, was in the Grand Final winning team in 2011
and was Fev captain from 2014-2016. In total he played 201 times for Fev.
There are two
additional Fev connection. We suspect that as a youngster Chris Clarkson would have watched quite a few Fev games while his
father, Micky, was a Fev player from 1998 to 2001. The other, of course, is
York coach, James Ford.
There are three
players who have been at Fev this year who have played for York in the past. John Davies was on dual reg from
Castleford in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Brad
Day also played for them on dual reg from Castleford in 2014. Tyler Dupree,
who played for Fev on dual reg against Hull KR in January, played 4 games for
York on loan from Leeds last year.
