The date is the 16th March 2002 – a double A – Side by Will Young is top of the charts (Anything is Possible/Evergreen), Liza Minelli married David Gest in New York City, this writer would have been running touch in a Basingstoke 3rd XV game somewhere in the South East, and Hinckley beat Lincoln 85 – 0 to win the Midlands 2 East title.

21 years later and various league restructures later, the Hinckley Staghounds are travelling in Lincoln knowing that just 1 point will give Hinckley their first league title in the RFU pyramid since 2002.

The development of the Staghounds, under the leadership of Mark Lord, Steve Harvey, Ricky Moran and Jocky Moran this year has been one of our great success stories of the 2022/23 season – the chance to enter into the league structures has given us a real focus for this side and the standard of rugby which the team has produced has significant exceeded previous years. I have long believed the strength of a club’s 2nd XV says a lot about where they are, and so long may the success of the Staghounds continue, and I will be keeping an eye on phone hoping to receive a message that the league title has been secured at some point in the afternoon.

At Leicester Road today, we host Clifton which will be a very difficult test for the 1st XV and we have a bit of a point to prove today. Our performance, and defence in particular was well below par at Hornets last week and although the score line makes it look like an end to end classic, it really wasn’t. We are boosted however by the return of Alex Salt, who was last seen at Redruth 7 weeks ago and we have a very exciting XV on the field today who we hope will allow last week to be put behind us. Clifton are a side we haven’t yet beaten since returning to the National Leagues and it will be interesting to see how they respond to their defeat to Leicester Lions last week, which has, baring a minor miracle meant that the league title will be going to Lions this season.

In regards to our injury situation, although it is now looking unlikely that we will be seeing Olly Povoas again this season, Rory Vowles will be back on the field within 2 weeks, with Adam Johnson and Will Trinder not far away from action either. Adam Groocock has also recently returned for the Staghounds so the list is starting to shorten, although illness meant we still had to change both wingers 24 hours before kick off last week – it makes us thankful we have a squad which is growing in depth which is something we know many other clubs in the area are struggling with.

Finally, look out for another update on the tackle height on the website in the next week or so, in advance of one of the RFU consultation meetings I am attending this month. As promised, we will be doing all we can to keep all club members up to date on what we are hearing and what we are doing as a club to push forward the members opinion.