Mick Ramsden recalls the first decade of York City Knights (From York Press)

Mick Ramsden recalls the first decade of York City Knights

3:52pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in Knights RL By Peter Martini, peter.martini@thepress.co.uk

FROM the despairing lows to the brilliant highs – York rugby league stalwart Mick Ramsden can remember only too well the rollercoaster ride his home-town club went through a decade ago.

Ramsden, the bulk of whose 14-year career was played out at York, was a crowd favourite with the Wasps in 2002 and is still at Huntington Stadium today, now, of course, being an assistant to player-boss Chris Thorman.

Kitmen Steve Harris and Rich Kirby, a stats man back in 2002, are also still around, part of the furniture in the boot room. But Ramsden is the only player back then to still be on the scene in the club’s tenth anniversary this year.

“I can remember the meeting when Ann Garvey (Wasps chief executive) and Russell Greenfield (vice-chairman) told the players the club had gone bust,” said the then 30-year-old of that fateful March day ten years ago.

“Leo Epifania was the coach, and he’d come over from Australia. I’ll never forget his face. I don’t think he could believe what was going on.

“There’d been a few issues – we hadn’t been paid and a few players left – but it still came as a big shock. We didn’t see it coming and didn’t know what to do.

“Some lads jumped ship but a lot of us stuck with them and tried to get through that period, but the club closed down.”

Ramsden attended the crisis meeting to “Keep Wasps Buzzing” as well as subsequent fans’ meetings to “Kick-start York RL”, including the one where the fans discovered they needed to raise £75,000 to be allowed back into the league in 2003.

The emotions and the mood changes from despair to hope were incredible.

“There was a hell of a turn-out,” he said of that legendary first meeting. “It was a terrible time but I can remember being excited by how people were reacting.

“There was another meeting when Steve Ferres (proposed chief executive) and Roger Dixon (chairman-to-be) said we didn’t want just £75,000 but £250,000. I was thinking, ‘This is mad... but it’s great’.

“The squad started to be assembled, and it was all a bit of a whirlwind.”

Ramsden was one of the first to put pen to paper.

“After the Wasps ended, I went down to New Earswick ARLC to help out with coaching there and ended up playing about ten games for them,” he said.

“I sent off for a season ticket to the Knights when I found out the new club was starting up, but then I got a call from Steve Ferres asking me to come down, and I signed straight away.

“It was amazing how things had changed. It was as if everyone in town became interested in the club again. There was a great buzz.

“That first season (2003) was fantastic. It was a really hot summer as well.

“The support was a big thing. The fans were brilliant. I remember going to places like London Skolars and the Skolars pub being packed with York fans.

“We didn’t do badly on the field either and we had a great team spirit. There was a nucleus in the team with a lot of York lads, like Alex Godfrey, Mark Cain, Rich Hayes and Daz Callaghan. That helped there to be a lot of interest around York. It was a great year.”

Did that year provide the best memories of the Knights’ first decade?

Said Ramsden, “One of the best moments was the first game, against Hull KR.

“We had more than 3,000, it was all new, we had a new kit, and there was a new sound system at the ground. It was a great atmosphere.

“The first win was great as well – at Sheffield. We’d beaten Skirlaugh (amateurs) in the Challenge Cup but Paul Broadbent (player-coach) was under a bit of pressure to get that win against pro opposition.”

The 2005 promotion season under Mick Cook was inevitably another high for Ramsden, who had considered hanging up his boots after a particularly disappointing end to 2004 but staved off retirement for one more year – and ended it with a National League Two winners’ medal. He was even made captain for the day when the trophy was presented.

He explained: “A huge downer for me was that 2004 Grand Final, and not just because we lost. Richard Agar (the then coach) had told me I’d be playing but on the Friday night said I wasn’t playing. The club had signed Albert Talipeau from Wakefield and he was in.

“I can see, as a coach, that you have difficult decisions but it’s stuck in my mind how bad I felt.”

He added: “But then we had the following year under Mick Cook. The promotion, the open-top bus tour around York, going to the Mansion House – that was a great honour.”

Retirement did not see Ramsden leave the Huntington Stadium ranks for good – far from it. He joined the backroom team as a scholarship coach and later became reserves boss and first-team assistant-coach. Further highs followed.

“Winning the 2010 Grand Final was brilliant,” he said. “You feel a different emotion as a coach. You’re in every players’ boots. But it was great to be a part of that. I know Dave Woods got a lot of credit as head coach but I think the work we did in the early days (before Woods arrived) contributed a lot.”

So who does Ramsden think were the best players for the Knights?

The club unveiled its Dream Team of the Decade, as voted for by fans, last winter, but the 40-year-old has his own opinions.

Ramsden said: “Lee Jackson obviously is up there. You could sense when he joined that he hadn’t really wanted to drop down from Super League. But he adapted and realised we were all good lads, and he was a great player for us. I got to know him and as a player he helped everyone play better.

“Then there’s the great Rich Hayes – a York legend.

“I enjoyed playing with Trevor Krause as well. It was a shame he went back to Australia after that first year. He was a good mate and we’re still in touch.

“Scott Rhodes and Danny Brough were great half-backs. It was great to play alongside a lot of mates from York as well, like Cainy, Callas, Alex Godfrey, Craig Forsyth and Jonny Liddell.

“As a coach I’ve worked with some excellent players, and working with (current player-boss) Chris Thorman is great.

“Also, for me, I spent a lot of time working with the scholarship and it’s great to see lads like Ed Smith and Kris Brining now playing in the first team. That makes me proud, to have helped them along the way since they were 13.”

These teenagers are part of the future of York RL, a future that wouldn’t have existed but for the events of ten years ago.