Bees Game

This Saturday, Doncaster Knights entertain Birmingham and Solihull (or the Bees as they are known in the rugby fraternity) at Castle Park in a match that kicks off at 2.30pm. This is the first of three scheduled meetings between the two clubs as the Knights travel to Birmingham later in the season in the return league game and in the B&I Cup.

The Bees have had a real roller coaster of a ride over the past few of seasons. They were bottom of the league at the end of the 2005/6 season but avoided relegation by the decision to increase the number of teams from 12 to 16; they were then relegated two seasons later; the next season they won the league below to bounce straight back up; and all last season they fought a massive financial battle against all the odds before avoiding relegation with the last game in the play offs. Add into that a move to a new ground in the summer and you can see that they are obviously a club with a great deal of resilience, determination and commitment!

We have had quite an affinity with the Bees over the past couple of seasons with fly half Mark Woodrow and others joining them from the Knights three years ago; then our former flanker Russell Earnshaw moved there as coach and he was joined by our “A” XV Coach Eugene Martin and then, last summer, the Tongan legend Ngalu Ta’u joined them from the Knights.

Last Sunday, the Bees had a resounding victory over Esher by 38 points to 16 scoring 5 tries in the process including gaining their 4th and bonus point try in the first half. This certainly caused quite a few eyebrows to be raised in the Championship and beyond. Although they lost all of their previous six games (Worcester [a] by 48 – 3; Nottingham [h] by 41 – 28; London Welsh [a] by 33 to 9; Pirates [a] by 32 – 15; Plymouth {h} by 36 – 18; Titans [a] by 32 – 14), reading the match reports on their opposition websites would suggest that they are a better side than their results give them credit for. Less the Knights forget, even though they are 8 points ahead of the Bees in the league, they have only won one game more with the remainder of the difference being made up of bonus points. Where the most significant difference is however is in points scored/conceded where the Knights have -17 and the Bees – 113.
Last season we played the Bees three times, twice in the league and once in the British and Irish Cup. In the league we won by 36 points to 7 at home and 33 points to 7 away whilst, in the B&I Cup, we won by 41 points to 8. I don’t think anyone is expecting things to be that easy this season. Since we have been playing at this level, we have played Bees six other times, winning 5 matches. The one defeat, at Birmingham in 2007/8, by 22 points to 20 still haunts Lynn Howells, the Knight’s Director of Rugby, as they were something like 15 points ahead after 10 minutes.
Castle Park will be the place to be this Saturday as, apart from the match, the TOSSER’s host their opening lunch of the season at 12.30pm and, as always, the famous “Cow Pie” and Tetley’s bitter will be on sale in both the Clubhouse and the Concourse under the DML Stand.