Sunday's Coming: Swinton

Whilst we’re all now champing at the bit to get 2018 underway, all talk of the last week has been of the Batley postponement and the consequent financial implications.

At its most basic, the loss of one of February’s three games deprives our club of 30% of it’s forecast revenue for the month and - after our observations last week of the impacts of the off-season budgetary issues - creates yet another financial hurdle to be negotiated.

Yes, we know that the 25 year lease on Scotland contains a clause whereby any game postponed at the behest of our landlords incurs a compensation payment, but the money that the Batley game would have yielded is needed right now to cover immediate costs.

And, if that situation wasn’t enough to make you shudder, the football club’s continued participation in the FA cup brings Spurs to Spotland for a televised tie on the day we should be playing Dewsbury (our suggestion: switch it to Wembley, have a big day out, pocket the cash and buy some grass seed).

As we said last week - testing times for all concerned.

As for the pitch situation, it has been mentioned endlessly in the media this week, variously between ‘limiting’ and ‘disgraceful’. Word reaches us that the football club has put the groundsman on gardening leave. God help his garden.

Having fought off their own financial demons last year, a new board looks to have steadied the Swinton ship for 2018. Key to that is the recent conformation of their dual-registration agreement with Wigan for 2018

Speaking in the the M.E.N, Swinton chairman Andy Mazey said: "With a tight budget and a small squad this year whilst we rebuild our club sustainably, the partnership with Wigan provides us with the ability to source quality players to supplement our squad when Stuart deems it necessary.”

The Lions began their 2018 campaign with a trip to Toulouse, where they were on the wrong end of a 32-point battering as TOXIIIC logged eight individual try scorers.

Swinton shipped five tries in the last quarter of an hour to go down 46-14. Interestingly, their only points of the second half came from the boot of Hankinson, futilely kicking into the 20-12 half-time deficit  after 56 minutes.

Swinton lined up:
1 Gabriel Fell
2 Mike Butt
3 Chris Hankinson
4 George Tyson
5 James Worthington
6 Danny Ansell
7 Jack Hansen
8 Andy Bracek
9 Hayden Hansen
10 Kyle Shelford
11 Rhodri Lloyd
12 Matt Sarsfield
13 Josh Barlow
Subs
14 Oliver Davies
15 Oliver Partington
16 Chris Worrall
17 Connor Taylor

Swinton also took a bit of an off-field bruising: we hear reports that one of their fans was jumped in Toulouse, suffering a broken cheek-bone and a stolen mobile. We wish him a quick recovery.

Coach Stuart Littler has undertaken what the Lions website describes as an ’extensive squad rebuilding’ exercise, bringing in nine new faces

We have Swinton’s 2018 intake as:
Kyle Shelford and Gabriel Fell (both Wigan), Marcus Webb and Danny Ansell  (both Hunslet)
Jesse Jo Sherriffe (Keighley), Chris Worrall (University of Gloucestershire All Golds), Hayden Hansen (Redcliffe Dolphins), Conor Taylor (Warrington) and the Championship’s favourite loose-cannon/sociopath George Tyson from Oldham.

Traditionally, there’s never been very much between ourselves and Swtinton so, as always, we are anticipating a close fought encounter at Heywood Road - and as our delayed season debut, it’d be good to get down there in numbers and make some noise.

AND DON’T FORGET: TLCRF80mins will be having a whip round on Sunday to raise some cash to help Hornets fill the financial hole left by the postponement of the Batley game, which deprives  us of 30% of February’s forecast revenue. We’re trying to get 500 RL fans to chuck in a tenner, with £5,000 our target, so please dig deep and help keep us start the season in as positive a way as possible. 

Sunday's Coming: Batley

“Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.”

US writer Henry Wheeler Shaw was an insightful bloke.  And, if what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, Hornets should come out of pre-season in reasonably solid shape.

A series of challenges have tested the club’s fortitude over the the winter, but in typical battling fashion, we go to the 2018 start-line on Sunday ready for another Championship season.

Not withstanding the budgetary adjustment, a Spotland pitch that continues to rot in front of your very eyes, and the loss of club statesman Ray Myers, Alan Kilshaw has pulled the squad tight and got us ready to go. Indeed, Sunday’s kick off should come as both a relief and a release.

We start this year’s journey - like last year - in Heavy Woollen fashion: this time facing Matt Diskin’s Batley Bulldogs, who’ve cornered the market in perfunctory, hard-to-beat obstinance. Having been blindly robbed at the Mount last year, Hornets were overcome in the return fixture by a side that wrung every last drop of its Championship nous out of a performance that was as brutally ugly as it was ruthlessly effective (Batley winning 14-24)

We wrote: “Batley arrived at Spotland with a win-at-all-costs gameplan that tested tyro referee Liam Moore capabilities to the limit - the Bulldogs shipping 12 of the game's 21 penalties as they brawled, sprawled and - eventually - spoiled every last ounce of quality from the game. With a huge pack, Batley's half-backs had a single purpose - to feed the forwards into traffic and grind out a win of any shade.”

And we anticipate more of the same this time round, the off-season having been a period of consolidation and augmentation. As far as we can see, the ‘Dogs have only lost Cain Southernwood (to Hunslet), Diskin having added Jonny Campbell and Keenan Tomlinson (Bradford Bulls), Izaac Farrell (Huddersfield Giants – loan), Tom Hemingway (Dewsbury Rams), Tom Holland (Whitehaven), Michael Ward (Oldham) and a certain Lewis Galbraith to his squad.

Batley come to Spotland having won three from three pre-season games. Having seen off Wakefield’s academy 24-12 and Keighley Cougars 0-28, the Dogs were unconvincing at Doncaster at weekend, struggling to shrug-off the League 1 outfit at the Keepmoat.

Having led 10- 20 at the break and 16-36 deep into the second half, Batley’s defence knocked-off early to finish clinging-on for a narrow 34-36 win - the home side aided and abetted by Farrell’s yellow-card for a professional foul.

Batley Lined up: David Scott, Wayne Reittie, Jason Crookes, Lewis Galbraith, Shaun Ainscough, Patrick Walker, Dominic Brambani, Adam Gledhill, Tom Hemingway, Tommy Holland, Dane Manning, James Harrison and James Brown.  Interchanges – Izaac Farrell, Keenan Tomlinson, Michael Ward, Alistair Leak, Alex Rowe, James Davey, Danny Cowling and Joe Chandler.

The Batley threat - as always - comes courtesy of their half back pairing of Patch Walker and Dominic Brambani who act as flywheel and governor at the heart of the Bulldogs machine. Their edges of Shaun Ainscough and Pound-Shop Vin Diesel™ Wayne Reittie are both no-nonsense, route-one finishers.

This year Ainscough comes paired with Trigger. If ever there was a case of watching your ex. snog your mate’s idiot brother, this is it. On the plus side, we all know where his frailties lie, so there’s an opportunity to exploit that familiarity.

Diskin starts the season minus prop Tom Lillycrop who dislocated a shoulder in the 28-0 pre-season win at Keighley Cougars and faces a lengthy absence.


On the home front, we’re excited to see the new iteration of Killer’s Hornets in action. After a close-season that has seen what feels like a pretty heavy turnover of personnel, we can’t wait to see the impact that the new guys will have. For those of you who’ve lost track, the new members of the Hornets squad are:

Luke Adamson (Oldham)
Toby Adamson (Dewsbury Rams)
Dave Allen (Whitehaven)
Earl Hurst (North Wales Crusaders)
Richard Lepori (Oldham)
Harry Reardon (Warrington Wolves)
Blake Turner (North Wales Crusaders)
Alex Gaskell (University of Gloucestershire All Golds)
Billy Brickhill (University of Gloucestershire All Golds)
Aiden Hema (Halifax)
Dec Gregory (Hemel Stags)
Callum Mulkeen (North Wales Crusaders)
Deon Cross (Blackbrook)

The squad has a good mix of experience and raw talent - which makes not an unknown quantity for us too. But, as we always do, lets don our colours one more time and get behind our team. Whatever waits for us between now and September, ultimately, unity will pull us through. We ask 100% of those who wear the jersey on our behalf - and it’s beholden on us to give the same level of commitment if we are to haul this club of ours all the way to a successful outcome.

Regardless of which side of the wall we spend our Sunday afternoons, we are all Hornets. We stand together, we pull together and we fight together. And while we surely will lose together too, the rewards for winning together will make it all the more satisfying.

Suck it in folks. Here we go…