Fylde face an extraordinarily tough January with three away matches and including two against the 1st & 2nd clubs in National Two (North). They kick off on Saturday (10th Jan) with a trip to the North East to face Billingham RUFC and a week later a Roses battle with Hull RUFC. Both opposing teams are struggling in the bottom four of the division and will be hell bent on escaping the relegation zone. The weather for Saturday is rather unpredictable at the moment but the excellent 4G pitch at Greenwood Road shouldn’t be an issue.
A week later on 24th Jan Fylde welcome 2nd placed Macclesfield to the Woodlands in what is likely to be a fierce battle for North West supremacy. Matters get even more challenging when on the following Saturday they travel to face unbeaten top of the table and (everyone’s) favourite for the championship, Sheffield RUFC.
Immediate attention will be on the trip to Stockton on Tees to meet Billingham on Saturday (ko 14.15). They are in 11th place in the division with 5 wins (4 at home) and 9 defeats.
Although relatively newcomers on Fylde’s fixture list they’ve proven tough, obdurate opponents. The very first time that the two clubs faced each other in a league game was in September 2023 at the Woodlands following Billingham’s promotion from the North East & Yorkshire Regional feeder division in 2022/3. This turned out to be a stereotypical ‘game of two halves’ as Fylde completely dominated the 1st half, scoring five tries and leading by 27-0 at HT. The 2nd half was different as the North Easterners hit back extraordinarily with three converted tries in the last six minutes for a final score of 32-26 to Fylde. One of the tries was scored by the visitors’ no 8 Mike Walton who subsequently was appointed as a Mathematics teacher at Lytham St Annes High School and he joined Fylde for the 2024-25 campaign. The reverse fixture in January 2024 was a little closer with Fylde completing a double win by 25-38 in Stockton.
Last season wasn’t straightforward as the fixture in the North East on 7th December 2024 coincided with the unwanted attentions of Storm Darragh. The teams got through the 1st half but the dreadful conditions worsened and eventually forced the game to be abandoned at half-time. The rescheduled game on 1st Feb was dominated by the home team and they beat Fylde with a degree of comfort by 39-17. The reverse fixture in April at the Woodlands was a closer affair with Fylde coming out on top by 22-12. One of Billingham’s try scorers that day was Ben Walton, Mike’s younger brother, who followed the same track and joined Fylde for the current season. The bragging rights stand currently at 4-1 to the Lancastrians but all of them tough encounters.
Billingham have a stable cohort of players supervised by 1st XV Director (and fly-half) Peter Evans. Leading scorer is the loyal and very experienced centre and goal kicker Luke Wilson who has 77 points to date. Top try scorer is rumbustious no 8 Ant Jackson with 7, closely followed by winger Eldon Myers with 6.
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Just over the halfway point in the current season, there are a couple of statistical curiosities worth mentioning. Since the establishment of the National League structure, Fylde have never drawn three games during a season, let alone all at home. Their draws v Hull Ionians (22-all), v Darlington Mowden Park (17-all) and Preston Grasshoppers (22-all) set a new record.
Another record is Fylde’s performance away from home at the start of a season, six out of six consecutive victories – ‘Hoppers (20-24), Macclesfield (19-21), Scunthorpe (27-45), Wharfedale (39-43), Otley (20-24) and Rossendale (10-57). The closest the Club has come to this in previous National League seasons was in 2010-11 when the season began with five consecutive away wins on the way to eventual promotion at the end of that campaign.
Fixtures on Saturday, 10th January:
Billingham v Fylde 1st XV (ko 14.15)
Blackpool v Fylde Vandals
Fylde Barbarians v Furness RUFC (ko 14.15)
The Hawks don’t have a game this weekend.
A few photos from the 2025-26 game between the two clubs follow, with the last one from the 2023-24 game at the Woodlands featuring a frank discussion between then Fylde fullback Tom Carleton and Billingham’s then no 8 Mike Walton, now with the Lancastrians.
