Fylde travel to the borders of Newcastle-on-Tyne when they renew acquaintances with old friends and rivals Blaydon RFC on Saturday (ko 15.00). Despite a 100% home record to date, Fylde have lost their last two away trips, at Rotherham and Sedgley Park, and will be looking to improve on Saturday.
Blaydon’s Crow Trees ground is probably the Lancastrians least favourite venue as they have a woeful record there since the first ever fixture between the clubs in September 2003. In the ten league games at the ground up to the 2016-7 season, Fylde have suffered nine defeats. Only in February 2015 did they turn the tables with a 24-28 victory.
In four seasons in National Two (North) between 2003-4 and 2006-7, Blaydon won seven of the eight games. Blaydon were promoted to National One in 2007-8 and fixtures weren’t resumed until 2011 when Fylde reached that division. Fylde fared much better at the Woodlands from 2012 onwards but are still 7-13 down in wins overall.
| Fylde v Blaydon | ||||
| Woodlands | Crow Trees | |||
| 2003-4 | 6-15 | L | 41-6 | L |
| 2004-5 | 32-3 | W | 25-15 | L |
| 2005-6 | 13-48 | L | 27-13 | L |
| 2006-7 | 15-20 | L | 15-6 | L |
| 2011-12 | 10-34 | L | 33-17 | L |
| 2012-13 | 23-19 | W | 41-17 | L |
| 2013-14 | 9-5 | W | 15-14 | L |
| 2014-15 | 42-24 | W | 24-28 | W |
| 2015-16 | 10-8 | W | 34-17 | L |
| 2016-17 | 26-17 | W | 30-24 | L |
In their 10 seasons in National One, Blaydon initially were placed in the top six clubs but, very like Fylde’s spell at that level (2011-2018), they gradually slipped down the division until they were relegated at the end of the 2016-17 season. Also like Fylde, they punched well above their weight in terms of available financial resources during this period. Clearly, their links to Newcastle Falcons helped with the use of dual registration to bring in talented young players for limited spells.
Relegation to N2N at the end of the 2016-17 season was followed by a very disappointing season which saw them relegated once more in 2018-19 to regional league North Premier. They soon picked themselves up and finished runners-up in the truncated 2019-20 campaign and back they came to National Two (North).
This early part of the season has been rather a struggle as they proceeded to lose their first six games – at home to Loughborough Students (23-27), Huddersfield (11-29), Rotherham (17-49) and Sedgley Park (16-66) and at Harrogate (17-12) and Wharfedale (23-8). From such an unpromising start came a flash of light and hope. They travelled to then high flying Bournville and produced a gutsy 26-27 victory which gave them great heart. However, they then slipped up 34-12 at Sheffield Tigers last Saturday. They currently sit in 15th place in the division.
The Club has excellent facilities and healthy revenue generating ventures like its famous car boot sale. More recently, it has installed a splendid 4G surface on the main pitch.
However, Fylde will again face a tough, physical challenge if this match is anything like previous encounters. Blaydon’s traditional strength has been a very strong pack, including in the mid-2010/20s five of the England Counties eight. One of the backbones during this period was loyal, legendary back five forward and Counties skipper Keith Laughlin who is now player-coach.
Blaydon’s back line usually includes fullback Nathan Bailey, centre or wing James Cooney and halfbacks Ryan Foreman (or Nathan Horsfall) and John Clarkson. A newcomer is winger Iwan Stephens, a young talent who crossed codes to join the Falcons’ senior academy in the summer of 2020, signing from Super League side Leeds Rhinos. Rugby union runs in the Stephens family, however, with Iwan’s father Colin being a former Welsh international fly-half who famously kicked Llanelli to victory over then world champions Australia back in 1992. Colin’s playing career eventually took him to Sedgley Park and Leeds Tykes, with Iwan growing up playing both codes before specialising in rugby league with the Rhinos, prior to his Falcons move.
He made a dramatic start to his Premiership career by scoring tries for the Falcons against Bath Rugby and Harlequins in his two starts before stepping down because of the return of England prospect Nathan Earles and Argentinian Mateo Carreras.
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The two images below are of the Fylde v Blaydon match programme, 20th March 2004, the second ever game between the clubs.
The action pics are by Chris Farrow of the game between the clubs at the Woodlands in Feb 2017.
