Preston Grasshoppers vs. Kirkby Lonsdale – Sat 5th March 2022, Kick Off 2:30pm
Preston Grasshoppers welcome the Kirkby Lonsdale rugby club to Lightfoot Green this Saturday for the fourth League meeting between the two clubs, the previous ones during Hoppers last visit to the Northern Premier League plus the visit to Cumbria last November.
The visitors haven’t had a good season so far, but results had begun to shown an improvement before a heavy defeat at the hands of Otley and last Saturday at Rossendale.
Hoppers closed the gap on the league leaders Otley last Saturday to three points, and would have been confident at half time in gaining a winning bonus point. However this was not to be as Otley fought back, restricting the home side to just three points in the second period. All credit to the Hoppers performance, especially in the first half during which they made Otley look rather mediocre to say the least and not at all like a side with just one defeat against their name this season. With only six games remaining, it will be difficult for Hoppers to close the gap to take the league title, but who knows what might happen?
First Fifteen games between Hoppers and Kirkby Lonsdale have been few and far between and before the first League meetings when honours were shared with a victory apiece, you need to go back as far as the 1999/2000 season to see when the two last met. Hoppers ran out winners that day by some considerable margin, adding to their four earlier successes. The first meeting took place at Lightfoot Green on the 11th of March 1995 when the visitors took the place of Tynedale who were due to visit.
The full record of results between the two clubs reads, seven victories to Preston Grasshoppers with just a single success by Kirkby Lonsdale.
The 1869 Club will be travelling to Rossendale for Hoppers next away fixture, hopefully on a dryer day than last time! The coach will depart at 11am with the usual arrangements.
DIGGER
Photo courtesy of Mike Craig.
Team News
- Baille LATHAM
- Harry HOLDEN
- Pete ALTHAM
- Ally MURRAY
- Dec NORRINGTON
- Toby HARRISON
- Ben DORRINGTON
- Matt LAMPREY
- Jake SQUIRRELL
- Ben PEARSON
- Tyler SPENCE
- Sam STOTT (C)
- Jordan DORRINGTON
- Will CLAPHAM
- Jacob BROWNE
- Olli TRIPPIER
- Ewan NAYLOR
- Alex TAYLORSON
Match Day Programme