Will Lees with Jack Walker in the background earlier this season at Lightfoot Green against Broadstreet.
Broadstreet vs. Preston Grasshoppers – Kick Off 2.15pm
Team News
Hoppers coach Garth Dew makes one change to the pack from the Otley game with Pete Altham added to the Front Row, whilst the back line sees Mark Murray return to the Full Back position and Harry Reddick take a place in the Centres.
Danny Madden will be hoping to get off the bench in what will be his fiftieth appearance for Hoppers 1st XV and Alex Ward will be hoping to make his debut.
1. Oga Mabaya, 2. Phil Mills, 3. Pete Altham, 4. Reece Tomlinson, 5. Ally Murray, 6. Andy Napier, 7. Will Lees, 8. Chris Taylor, 9. Sam Kindred, 10. Alex Zavallis-Roebuck, 11. Phil Baines (Captain), 12. Billy Woof, 13. Harry Reddick, 14. Lewis Allen, 15. Mark Murray.
Replacements: 16. Alan Holmes, 17. Danny Madden, 18. Jack Walker, 19. Alex Ward, 20. Tom Hurst.
Preview
Preston Grasshoppers take a trip to Broadstreet for their first game of 2015 this coming Saturday to what will be their third visit to the club which is situated close to Coventry. Neither of their two previous visits to the Ivor Preece Stadium have resulted in victory, the best being a ten all draw on the last meeting there on the 7th of November 2009 when ‘Zav’ scored all the points, converting a penalty try plus a three pointer
The first meeting between Broadstreet and Hoppers was on the 19th of October 2002 at Lightfoot Green when the home side ran out winners by thirty four points to twenty. The reverse fixture gave ‘Street’ their only victory to date over Hoppers, twenty six points to twenty. Olly Viney, Gary Monaghan and Paul Bailey scoring a try each for the visitors.
Garth Dew and his charges will be hoping the New Year brings a change of fortune and can turn round a miserable if somewhat unlucky run of results which has seen them on the winning side just once since October and without a win on the road since their first two away fixtures.
Broadstreet gained promotion from Midlands 1 at the end of last season as Champions by a comfortable seventeen points and although they started this season somewhat unsteadily, they’ve recovered with a run of recent good form moving them away from the danger zone at the bottom of the table to one place above Hoppers who are now in that uncomfortable position near the drop area.
The home side have close links with National 1 club Coventry and have no doubt benefited from the situation during this season. Stand Off Ben Palmer has connections with both clubs as does Ashley Elvers, Jack Gibbons, Luke Myring, Pierre Ferrer, Henry Sandys, Gareth Turner, Roan van Heerden, Nicholas Murphy, Jacques Le Roux, Brett Daynes, Barry Davies and James Otutaha. The collective have made a total of seventy appearances for the junior club scoring one hundred and thirty eight points between them in the process. Out of the thirteen, only Elvers, Palmer and Murphy haven’t featured for the parent club so far this season. A look back to the visiting squad of twenty from earlier this season at Lightfoot Green shows just Ashley Elvers in the starting fifteen with Nicholas Murphy amongst the five replacements.
Our host’s run of good results has seen them win five times in their last six outings and the one reverse was at the hands of Ampthill who Broadstreet still managed to score thirty three points against. Scoring points doesn’t appear a problem for ‘Street’ at the moment, accumulating one hundred and thirteen in their last three games!
There have been just five meetings between the two clubs in the past with Hoppers winning three, Broadstreet one and as mentioned earlier in this piece a ten all draw being played out at Ivor Preece Field.
Photo by kind permission of Mike Craig.
