It's here - the new season!
This Saturday we kick off the new season with the visit of our old friends Luctonians who have returned to our league at the first time of asking after defeating Blaydon in the promotion play-off at the end of last season.
Luctonians, based in the village of Kingsland in North Herefordshire, face a long 259 miles journey to reach us – Luctonians/Tyndale being the longest travel in National 2(North).

At the end of the 2017-2018 season Luctonians were relegated from National 2(North) along with Sheffield and Blaydon, finishing third bottom with 53 points. As always has been the case with Tynedale v Luctonians fixtures both matches that season were close, tightly fought affairs with Tynedale edging a thriller 40-38 at Luctonians (scoring the winning try in the last minute) and winning the home match by a more comfortable 28-12.
Last season Luctonians finished runners-up behind Scunthorpe in the Midlands Premier league, finishing with 101 points, going on to win their play-off match at Luctonians by 31-17.

Saturday's squad includes three new names :-
Will Haydon-Wood - 18-year-old Will joins us on dual-reg from Newcastle Falcons Senior Academy. Will attended Sedburgh School and represented England at Under 18 level and has also already played for England at U20 level.
Anthony Harvey - Prop forward Anthony joins us from Blaydon. Anthony has also played at Waterloo and Darlington Mowden Park and is a full Maltese International.
Ethan Clarke - 19-year-old Ethan is a back-rower who joins us from Percy Park. Ethan attended Gosforth Academy and has represented Nwcastle Falcons A Team.

WEATHER FORECAST
Dry with light cloud cover, a gentle northerly breeze and a temperature of around 13 degrees. These "ideal" playing conditions are slightly different to when the clubs were due to meet for the very first time on Saturday 9th December 2015. On that ill-fated day when storm Desmond struck, the Tyne dramatically burst its banks and flooded the ground and clubhouse at Tynedale Park.

Let's all get down to Tynedale Park this Saturday and support the lads on what is sure to be a highly competitive and entertaining start to the new season.