fevnut's musings #06: Whitehaven, Two Good Two Bad and Going Up

 

Playing against Whitehaven

 

When the fixture list came out for 2021 we were a little bit sad that we weren’t going to have an away match against them this year. Yes, it’s a long haul getting there but it was always so nice to go up to Cumbria even though there were some occasions when we thought we were in danger of suffering from frostbite!

 

There was one occasion when we got delayed and arrived just moments before kick-off. Because there was no time to get to our usual position in the ground we watched the first half from the end near the entrance. It seemed strange that Fev were making an absolute hash of getting the ball away from the far corner (top left in the picture) whenever Whitehaven kicked it there. At half-time we wandered around the ground and saw that it wasn’t the fault of the Fev players. That corner was waterlogged and there was about six inches of heavy, mud on the surface! It looked impossible to run the ball out of there at all. In the circumstances they were doing well to ever get the ball out.

 

Then there was the 1998 season when our match up there was in early February. Not generally a good time for driving to Cumbria but we decided to make the most of it and set off with our lads the day before, stopping overnight with relatives in Lancaster, en route. Fortunately the Sunday morning was bright and beautiful and we took the long route going over a couple of the lake district passes through snow covered peaks. We even stopped for a picnic on the top of one pass but had to lay out a blanket on the snow first!

 

 

Two good, two bad

 

In recent years there have been several matches when we have put more than 40 points past Whitehaven. We particularly recall the games against them in 2010 on our way to winning the first of 4 successive Championship leagues. The aggregate score, home and away, was 102-18 to Fev. Stu Dickens got us onto the scoreboard with a try in the second minute and Liam Welham (brother of Kris) scored two tries but the greatest damage was that 2 Fev players scored hat-tricks – Jesse Joe Parker (nowadays at Whitehaven) and Kyle Briggs, who also kicked 7 goals.

 

But, lest we get cocky about how well we do against Whitehaven, maybe we should remind ourselves of two  less happy games. Of course it won't happen on Sunday!?

 

In 2004 we had to go to Whitehaven in the play-offs with the winners progressing to the Grand Final. We had only finished 5th in the table but we had already beaten Oldham away and then Hull KR away with a team who were playing really well. But it came to a sorry end at the Recreation Ground when a powerful Whitehaven side won 30-2. A miserable journey home that day!

 

If anything, March 2009 was even worse. It was one of those off-days that we have been prone too. All the pointers were to a comfortable Fev victory. Whitehaven travelled to Fev to face a powerful Rovers side which included Ian Hardman, Tommy Saxton, Iestyn Harris, Andy Kain, Tony Tonks, Stu Dickens, Matty Dale and Tim Spears. Not only did we lose, we suffered a 52-26 thrashing.

 

It was largely down to an 18 year-old Whitehaven lad who had been signed by Huddersfield that year but loaned back to Whitehaven for the season. He scored 32 points (4 tries and 8 goals) and has been a thorn in our flesh ever since! His name: Gregg McNally! And he’s now back at Whitehaven and likely to be playing on Sunday. 

The final episode in this particular story is when we went to Whitehaven just 4 weeks later. It was 12-12 at half-time but in a tremendous second half we took them apart to end up winning 44-18 with two tries apiece for Matty Dale and Joe McLocklan. That, despite the fact that were very few changes in the team line-ups from the home match.

 

 

Going Up

 

After the first round of Championship matches we were lying 5^th in the table. Our win against Swinton took us up to 4^th and then Bradford beating Halifax took us up to 3^rd. Later that evening we settled down to watch York playing Sheffield expecting York to win and take us up to 2^nd. But it didn’t happen.

 

For us, the surprise teams so far in 2021 have been Dewsbury and Sheffield. It remains to be seen how long they can maintain their good showing. We have three important matches in May with away trips to York, Sheffield and Halifax. Of course, it should have been even more of a revealing month which was supposed to start away at Toulouse but that one has been postponed to sometime later in the year. Nevertheless, by the end of May we should really start to know what sort of a season this is going to be for Fev!