This Saturday we welcome the players, officials and supporters of Hull Ionians RUFC.
We have a long history of excellent matches against Ionian teams, and we look forward to another exciting contest today.
We also, of course, extend a warm welcome to the match officials, David Charlton, Simon O’Neil and Fraser (Jock) Gill (unless he retires again before Saturday).

THE IONIANS NAME
Ionians RUFC was founded in 1926 at a meeting at 37 Marlborough Avenue, Hull, as a breakaway group from Old Hymerians. The historians in the group chose the name Ionians from the ancient all-conquering tribe based in the Greek Islands.
Hull Ionians RUFC was then formed in 1989 following the merger of Hull & East Riding with Ionians.
The historians in Hull may have considered them to have been all-conquering, but the Ionians were only one of the four major tribes of the Hellenic world alongside the Dorians, Aeolians and Achaeans.
They were actually renowned for their love of philosophy, art, democracy and pleasure, rather than aggression, so the choice may have been a strange one. Still, Hull Ionians has a nice ring to it: Hull Dorians may have sounded OK and its spelling was quite easy, but that’s not true for the other two!

TYNEDALE v HULL IONIANS MATCHES
Tynedale played the Hull club, firstly, as the old Hull and East Riding team, for 26 years, then as Hull Ionians for a further 10 years.
When League rugby was introduced in 1987 Ionians and Tynedale were founder members of North 1 – level 5 rugby. They competed there for thirteen years, until Tyne were promoted in 2000. Hull Ionians finished second to Tynedale that 1999/2000 season, and were promoted two years later in 2002.

Until 2018 Tynedale dominated the League fixtures, winning 12 of the 14 matches played, and scoring 403 points for, with 217 points against. However, things changed dramatically in season 2018/2019, and the Ionians have not lost since:-

2018/2019 - Tynedale 20 Hull Ionians 50
2018/2019 - Hull Ionians 38 Tynedale 29
2021-2022 - Hull Ionians 50 Tynedale 14
2021-2022 - Tynedale 18 Hull Ionians 18
2022-2023 - Tynedale 21 Hull Ionians 36
2022-2023 - Hull Ionians 59 Tynedale 7

The Tynedale League record against Hull Ionians since 1987 now look like this:-
Played 20, Won 12, Drawn 1, Lost 7, For 562, Against 468

1973 - FIFTY YEARS AGO
On 1st September 1973 Tynedale played at Goddard Avenue against Hull Ionians’ predecessors, Hull & East Riding RUFC.

The teams were:-
TYNEDALE.
Chris Davy; Mike McLoughlin, Ian Blyth, Will Rutherford, Alan Pescott; Alan Stokoe (Capt,) Alan Pye; Alistair Whitfield, Bob Cunningham, Nigel Enevoldson; Robin Murray, Neil Robson; Wallace Cousin, Roger Dinning, Justin Smart.
HULL & EAST RIDING
B. Riley; I. Sadler, J. Kilfoyle, R. Cole, T. Clark; N. Scrutton, I. Orum; J. Clark, R. Middleton, P. Enderby; T. Rennard, J. Thornton ; D. Girkin, D. Bone, J. Atkinson (Capt).

At least six of that Tynedale team are still regular attendees at Tynedale home matches.

THIS SEASON
Hull Ionians have had, for them, a very slow start to the season with 3 wins from their 9 matches played. Although they have recorded one more victory than Tynedale they currenly sit two places below us in the league with two fewer points. It does seem an extremely competitive league this season with several points separating the majority of the teams. A win for one of the current lower placed teams would probably send them spiralling into the top half of the table.

Hull Ionians league results to date:-
Huddersfield 21 Hull Ionians 39
Hull 25 Hull Ionians 30
Hull ionians 34 Leeds Tykes 49
Sheffield Tigers 49 Hull Ionians 5
Hull Ionians 15 Preston Grasshoppers 19
Billingham 24 Hull Ionians 17
Hull Ionians 36 Wharfedale 23
Lymm 31 Hull Ionians 30
Hull Ionians 24 Rotherham Titans 49

HULL IONIANS WEBSITE
https://www.hullionians.co.uk/

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: David Charlton
AR1: Paul Fincken
AR2: Fraser Gill

BALL BOYS
Tynedale Under 14’s

WEATHER FORECAST
Low possibility of light rain, light south-westerly wind, 12 degrees

SELECTED SQUAD