8:10am Saturday 20th February 2010
By Peter Martini
THE Challenge Cup third round draw wasn’t overly kind to the Knights again this week – although it would have been worse but for a cock-up.
Only two years ago, York were drawn against Championship club Halifax at the stage they enter the competition, being one of only four clubs from the Championships to miss having a tie, as is the norm, against an amateur club. They went on to lose that game and miss out on a cup run which could have brought a money-spinning tie against a Super League club, who enter in round four.
The Knights have missed amateur opposition again this year, being drawn away at Gateshead, one of only three all-Championships encounters.
Still, at least they haven’t got a Championship side or one of the decent French outfits – which they would have done but for the need for a re-draw.
And, for Knights player-coach Chris Thorman – a previous Challenge Cup finalist with Huddersfield – it also means a trip home to the North East.
The draw, which was actually made in Gateshead, at the Metro Centre, was quite farcical as a re-draw was required when a ball picked from Pool ‘B’ was accidentally put back into the bag.
This ball was later re-drawn, making void the original draw – in which the Knights had been paired with Championship side Toulouse.
York had also hosted Toulouse – then of the French Elite League – at this stage in 2007, winning 54-28, with Ian Brown memorably scoring four tries in 14 minutes. However, they are probably a tougher proposition these days.
Indeed, the Thunder would have been cursing the need for a re-draw much more, as they had initially been handed a far easier task, against the Royal Navy.
Gateshead, of course, brought Thorman’s two brothers, Paul and Neil, into the semi-professional arena, while their mum, Phyllis, used to be on the board at the Thunderdome.
Thorman said: “I didn’t think it was a bad draw. It’s nice for me to go back to the North East – it’s been a while since I’ve been – and it will be interesting to see how Gateshead are going.”
The new-look Gateshead, relegated back to Championship One after financial strife, have lost all three of their Northern Rail Cup games so far, conceding 150 points, and York will be favourites to progress. The tie will be on Sunday, March 7.
STAYING with the Challenge Cup, two Knights players are eyeing glory on two fronts.
Young half-back Jy-Mel Coleman and centre Chris Clarke are also part of the Leeds Met University side that made it through to round three.
They beat the Police in round two and are the last student team left in the competition, and now have a tough test away to Championship club Batley, who were the first winners of the Challenge Cup way back in 1897.
It seems they are likely to play in round three no matter what, though whether that be for York or Leeds Met is not yet known.
Knights caretaker-boss Thorman said: “We have first say over them. We will have to decide what team to pick. We’ll have to talk about it but, if they’re not in our squad, I for one would not stop them from playing for Leeds Met.
“The Challenge Cup is a really special competition and to represent your university against professional opposition is something special.”
BOTH Coleman and Clarke were in the Knights reserves team on Thursday night that came up against a very strong Hull outfit.
The Black and Whites won 56-0, with a star turn in the pivots from former New Earswick junior Pat Smith, who is an older brother of Knights’ scholarship graduate Eddie Smith, who also played that night.
Hull featured several players in their Super League squad, and gave the youthful Knights, who also featured teenage trialists Ben Johnson and Liam Hogan, a tough night at the office.
Props John Fallon and Mark Falkingham and hookers Chris Williams and Luke Helliwell did well for the Knights – Fallon, Falkingham and Helliwell enough to win call-ups to the first team for tomorrow.
LEGENDARY Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann famously carried on playing in the 1956 FA Cup final despite breaking his neck, helping the Citizens to beat Birmingham.
Former England left-back Stuart Pearce limped off after breaking a leg playing for West Ham but kept his boot on and wanted to go back out and play in the second half.
Tiger Woods won the Masters with a busted knee.
And Liverpool’s Gerry Byrne broke his collarbone three minutes into the 1965 FA Cup final but continued to play, even through extra time, as the Reds beat Leeds.
Now, former Knights favourite Rob Spicer can be added to that list of brave but barmy sportsmen, after breaking his arm in Dewsbury’s win over Rochdale last Sunday but continuing to play on for 25 minutes.
“It’s just a bruise,” he said. “No it’s not,” said the X-ray.
Waterman and Ross join the early leader
FIVE more players have got onto the Press Player of the Year leaderboard after the Knights’ two games this week.
Lee Waterman’s hat-trick display in the win at Rochdale brought him the man-of-the-match award and three player-of-the-year points on Wednesday, while Jordan Ross was named our top performer (3pts) in the defeat at Sheffield on Sunday.
Both go joint-top of the early standings with Richard Blakeway, who was man of the match in the opening game.
Props Brett Waller and Nathan Freer were deemed by The Press to be the Knights’ second-best player on Wednesday and Sunday respectively and so both pick up two points.
Winger Wayne Reittie was deemed by us to be the third-best Knights performer on both days so is awarded one point in each instance.
Press Player of the Year standings: Blakeway 3pts, Ross 3, Waterman 3, Thorman 2, Freer 2, Waller 2, Reittie 2, McLocklan 1.
THE Knights wore that away strip on Wednesday night in which the numbers, bizarrely, are written in white on a white background. However, improvements are afoot.
Up close, it is easy enough to see the numbers, which are outlined in black. But from any distance, they are indecipherable, as if written in light pencil, much to the irritation of observers.
However, the club, who weren’t happy with them from the outset, will send them back this Monday for the numbers to be filled in, in conspicuous black. They couldn’t return them sooner as they were needed for games, but they now have a few weeks when they won’t been used, with two home matches followed by a trip to Gateshead, with whom first-choice kits don’t clash.
There are tales of other kit issues at Huntington Stadium, meanwhile, as the players were rumoured to have not received new training gear this season, making sessions look a bit ragtag and bobtail. There were claims the players have had to put cash in themselves to pay for new gear, though general manager Ian Wilson says there hasn’t been a problem.
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