CITYANDBACKAGAIN–BYROBPARR ascent through the league system. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s,
Sheffield played expansive rugby with a half-back partnership of Ian Wright and Bill Reichwald, leading a very talented back line that was bolstered by young players from Sheffield Polytechnic. Ian Wright had played for Fylde, Preston Grasshoppers and Nottingham before arriving in Sheffield. Bill was an ever-present member of the Sheffield team for nearly 20 seasons in which he clocked up 515 games. He was captain for 372 of these games and was an inspiration to young players like myself, both on or off the pitch. I was Bill’s vice-captain for 3 seasons before taking over the captaincy for my last 2 seasons at Abbeydale. In the 6 seasons that I played at Sheffield, we played in National 3 and finished in the top half of the table in most of these seasons. There was one season when Sheffield had struggled and we turned up for the last game of the season at the Woodlands needing a win to be certain of retaining our place in National 3. Fortunately for us, Fylde were safe in the top half of the table and were not challenging for the single promotion place. Sheffield had to work very hard to win the game and therefore avoided relegation. The team were extremely relieved and very happy with the result. We settled in for quite a late night in the old clubhouse to celebrate our victory. This involved some obligatory drinking games and resulted in a naked conga around the clubhouse!! An experience that you will be pleased to know I have no plans to repeat.
Sheffield Team Photo 1992-93
After 163 appearances, I played my last game for Sheffield in April 1993 and effectively retired from rugby with some extremely good memories of my time at Abbeydale which, for the most of it, we punched very much above our weight. Before my last season, Fylde had been promoted into National 2 and after a re- structuring of the leagues, Sheffield found themselves in National 4. They then experienced some difficult times but have climbed back up by getting promoted 4 times in the last 12 seasons to where they are now. So, this is the first season that the clubs have played each other since the 1991-92 season. After nearly 20 years living in Yorkshire on “Missionary Work”, I returned to my Lancastrian roots in 2001. I re-connected with my first club and have been involved in various roles at Fylde since then. I have to admit though, that I have divided loyalties as the friendships that I made whilst playing at Sheffield mean ever so much to me.
www. fylderugby .co.uk
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