Adam Lewis made his debut for Fylde in 2006, went on to make 241 1st XV appearances, plus 50 for Sedgley Park, and skippered Fylde in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. The legendary prop also skippered Lancashire to County Championship glory at Twickenham and was capped by England Counties.
It was clear when he announced his retirement at the end of the Covid-19 truncated 2019-20 season that he would leave a huge hole to be filled. To replace Lewis, the Club’s coaches have promoted two young props brought through the senior teams, Matt Ashcroft and Zack Barrow, recruited Scotland U’20s squad member Corey Bowker and brought a former Junior and colts player, Sam Kyle-Clay, back to the club following a few seasons away. And very well the foursome have performed in the early weeks of the new season.
Playing prop forward in the National Leagues is a physically demanding regime and injuries are always just around the corner. So when Matt Ashcroft was brought off at home to Bournville a week ago and it was clear that he was unlikely to make an immediate return to the action, a gap in the front row had to be filled.
Back in the summer of 2020 when reflecting on his retirement to spend more time with his family and professional life, Adam Lewis said: “I’ve accrued lots of injuries over the last few years and had no time to recover properly, but if Spraggy (head coach Warren Spragg) finds himself in dire straits at any point I will always help out, even if its carrying the water.”
New Joint Head Coaches Alex Loney and Chris Briers, who succeeded Warren Spragg, must have remembered Lewis’ offer, reinforced by him and his family watching the 1st XV regularly this season. When the need arose, Lewis honoured his earlier offer and has been happy to be re-registered in time to join the replacements bench at Blaydon RFC today. It’s a huge boost for the team to have such experience and technical know-how at the heart of the forward battle.
It’s especially appropriate that Fylde followers will have a chance to acknowledge Lewis’ contribution to the Club given the abruptly ended 2019-20 season. Welcome back Adam!
Photos: Adam Lewis at the end of his last game in the 2019-20 season, at home to Luctonians
With his family at the Fylde v Bournville game last Saturday
