Fylde make their latest trip to Otley‘s iconic Cross Green Ground on Saturday (ko 15.00). The Lancastrians are in 5th place in National Two (North) whilst Otley are in 9th, 21 points behind. This is a clash of two of the longest established, most prominent Northern clubs with fixtures between them going back 95 years.
On 27th October 1928 Otley won 18-9 at Cross Green but Fylde gained revenge, 8-6, at the Woodlands on 1st April 1929. This became a regular fixture thereafter, twice a season until 1968-69 with the fixture at the Woodlands scheduled to coincide with Blackpool’s Illuminations. From 1969-70 the two clubs played each other once a season, alternating home and away. The onset of league rugby broke this pattern in 1990. By this time, they had played each other 87 times in club matches, with Fylde winning 56, drawing 6 and Otley winning 25.
The clubs met in league competition for the first time on 25th April 1992 at the Woodlands, the final day of the 1991-2 season. This was particularly important for Fylde who needed to win to secure promotion, along with Richmond, to National Division Two. It was a very tense occasion and Fylde just came out on top by 16-13.
It was in the 1999-2000 season when Otley were on their way upwards through the leagues, whilst Fylde were slipping down. By the 2003-4 season, Otley were competing at level 2, Fylde at level 4. Seven seasons later, Fylde were promoted back to level 3 whilst Otley were relegated to level 4. So once again, the clubs avoided each other in league action. A gap of 18 years separated fixtures between the clubs until they met again in 2018-19.
Following a period in the regional division they were promoted back to National Two for 2022-23. This was a successful campaign as they were in the top four in the division for most of the season, winning 15 and losing 10 games, and finishing in 5th place in the division. One of their victories was a 28-27 triumph against Fylde at Cross Green. This season has been tougher, with four home and three away victories, but a disappointing seven home defeats, albeit several very narrow reverses. In fact, they have more losing bonus points than any other club in the division.
Otley’s Head Coach is PE teacher Kyle Dench, a well known former centre at Otley, Harrogate and a regular Yorkshire County cap. They have a strong squad, with a mix of experienced campaigners, also with Yorkshire County honours, and young talent.
In the game between the two clubs last season their powerful pack caused particular problems for Fylde in the tight and loose exchanges. Fylde’s scrummaging and lineout play will have to be accurate if they are to provide their backline with sufficient possession to test the visitors’ defence. The Otley pack features props Jason Moss and Leon Mudd, hooker Ryan Gibson, powerful lock Chris Jackson and backrowers including skipper Adam Malthouse and Sam Waddington.
But Otley are far from a one trick, forwards-dominated team. They can attack wide with menace through a dangerous backline featuring prolific try scoring winger Sam Taylor (who leads the N2N scoring ranking with 20 to date), fellow wing Clark Wells and centre and goal kicker Gavin Stead who is leading points scorer with 107. Fly-half is usually Eddie Crossland and he’s most often partnered by scrum-half Rory Gaffney. Leading points scorer is Stead with 57.
One recent player link between the two clubs is Fylde local product Ben Gould who played at scrum-half for Otley in the 2021-22 season when he was a student at Leeds Beckett University.
Our visitors are not only one of the oldest clubs in England but is almost certainly the only club in the world that can count a Nobel Physics Prize winning scientist as a former player! Albert Fert, together with German scientist Peter Gruen-berg, have shared the award for their independent discoveries, in the 1980s, of a process allowing huge amounts of data to be squeezed into ever-smaller spaces – now used by billions of people on their computers and digital music players. The scientist, born in 1938, actually played in the back row for Otley RUFC in the mid 1970s, mostly in the second team. He was in West Yorkshire at the time, working with professors Jim Morgan and Denis Greig on the conduction of electricity by magnetic metals at the University of Leeds.
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64 years ago Otley visited Fylde and here is the match programme. A different player numbering system but including representatives of local families still connected to the Club.
