Monday, 16 March 2020

T'Other Side: York City Knights









FIRST TEAM SQUAD

2020 Matches



LAST TIME OUT


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. 



No comments:

Post a Comment