Page 12 - The Swan CV Edition 4 April 2020

1995 YORKSHIRE SHIELD WINNERS
ANNIVERSARY RECOLLECTIONS
25 Years since Selby’s last Yorkshire Shield Win
Our last home game of this Covid-19 ruined Season should have been at Home to Beverley and it is fitting to remember that exactly 25 years ago, Beverley were our opponents in the Final of the Yorkshire Shield, played at Clifton Moor York, the last time Selby were Winners of a competition which, before the advent of League Rugby, was eagerly anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed by Clubs deemed to be in the Second Tier of Yorkshire Rugby. Below is an article I wrote for the Brochure which was produced to commemmorate the Club’s 75th Anniversary in 2008.
A get together had been planned for the Players in the Squad to coincide with the Farmers’ Lunch and home game to Ponte, but that unfortunately also fell victim to the dreaded Corona-Virus and has been postponed until a future date.
Funnily enough, Toby Pemberton was confident enough to purchase a set of “Shield Winner” ties before the Final, which he was thankfully able to hand out. He also ordered a set of ties for the 25th Anniversary Celebration and will no doubt be determined to make sure they find safe homes!!
Recollections of winning the Yorkshire Shield 1995 - Ray Adamson
Winning any kind of Cup competition requires a strong squad and the squad that won the 1995 Yorkshire Shield had plenty of strength in depth, as witnessed by not selecting (amongst others) Sam Longthorp, Simon Hall, Gareth Clash, Richard Nicholson or Ian Wotton in the team that brought home the Shield in 1995.
The team had youth, talent in abundance and an old lag at 10 who had been round the block a few times. This, combined with a tremendous spirit and Craig Busby’s guidance was too much for any of our opponents that year.
The first round home game against Halifax Vandals was pretty much one way traffic until we got too flashy late on and allowed them a couple of consolation tries. A resounding 44-22 win brought us an away tie at Pocklington, never an easy place to play and so it proved. I was unfit and the goal kicking of Simon Hall eventually proved the difference in a hard fought and nervy match. Round three meant a trip to our old adversaries in Settle and a typically difficult game against Ribblesdale. Despite being under the cosh for a
lot of the game our defence and resolve held firm and a late drop goal by yours truly took us two scores clear and enough to progress to the Semi Final where our opponents at Sandhill Lane were Roundhegians.
On form we easily had enough skill and nous to get to the Final but, as anybody who has ever played in a Semi Final knows, getting over the winning line is never straight forward. A tense performance against a team determined to stifle everything we tried made it more difficult than we would have liked, but realistically we were always the better side and another drop goal late in the game was enough to enable everybody to heave a sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge that we had earned our place in the Final.
Our opponents that day would be Beverley, captained by Steve Girking, whom I knew from our days together at Wakefield. For me the build up to the Final was quite scary as a stomach muscle injury made it a touch and go race against time. Fortunately I was able to resume running the week before the Final, managed a gentle game in the seconds and was able to declare myself fit for the big day. We met early that morning and I remember sitting upstairs at the club quoting
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