Batley game Boxing Day.

Only 6 days before we see our first pre season game as we welcome our nearest and dearest to the Flair Stadium. Looking forward to this game and seeing how the lads from last season and new recruits go. Let's hope we get a decent crowd. See you all there. 

Tough one to predict, both teams with new coaches and will be wanting to keep last season's momentum going. I'd like to predict some Christmas cheer but my head rules my heart.

16-34

Dewsbury MOM Restall

Attendance 1711

Never read too much into a Boxing Day game, it's simply a hit out for players to blow the cobwebs off, and pass around a bit. 

Result just means bragging right, and will only give a small idea of the season to come, home advantage hopefully will see us home Rams 18 Dogs 14

Fts Restall 

Crowd 1000

MOTM Hookem 

Boxing Day games are just there to enjoy getting back to RL and watching your team. the outcomes are almost impossible to predict and mostly immaterial. Just enjoy meeting up with your mates again, discussing the attributes of your squad and cheering them on in the cold and damp. I would expect a much bigger crowd than 1000, however, despite competing attractions.

Have a Merry Christmas and get yourselves down to the game.

How much is it to get in this year?

(And how much to get out?)

14 minutes ago, Sir Jekyll Stocking said:

How much is it to get in this year?

(And how much to get out?)

£20.

You can buy a ticket on-line here: Rams Shop – Tickets, bookings and merchandise at a click! (dewsburyrams.shop)

I don't know if they are available from the Batley web site. (Edit: on the Batley web site the on-line tickets link is no longer functional - just a temporary glitch, I'm sure.)

Apart from Butty moving onwards and upwards I sort of see the new signings as a potential strengthening of last year's squad and I'm looking forward to seeing any clues as to how it may be going to work out.

As others have said, however, friendlies aren't always the best indication of how things are going to be. In fact the Boxing Day duel with the old enemy is the only one I bother with. 

Does anyone know if the South Stand will be open?

Merry Christmas to all  and a happy and successful New Year. 

14 minutes ago, STEVE P said:

Apart from Butty moving onwards and upwards I sort of see the new signings as a potential strengthening of last year's squad and I'm looking forward to seeing any clues as to how it may be going to work out.

As others have said, however, friendlies aren't always the best indication of how things are going to be. In fact the Boxing Day duel with the old enemy is the only one I bother with. 

Does anyone know if the South Stand will be open?

Merry Christmas to all  and a happy and successful New Year. 

Yes, it will be for the majority of our matches in 2024 as well as on Boxing Day.

2 hours ago, STEVE P said:

Apart from Butty moving onwards and upwards I sort of see the new signings as a potential strengthening of last year's squad and I'm looking forward to seeing any clues as to how it may be going to work out.

As others have said, however, friendlies aren't always the best indication of how things are going to be. In fact the Boxing Day duel with the old enemy is the only one I bother with. 

Does anyone know if the South Stand will be open?

Merry Christmas to all  and a happy and successful New Year. 

The southstand was pressure washed and swept Wednesday & friday

So it better be open after that effort

20 minutes ago, coolie said:

The southstand was pressure washed and swept Wednesday & friday

So it better be open after that effort

Good, wouldn't want to get my Christmas slippers mucky.

Great to hear the south stand was pressure washed and swept — that’s some job on cold and wet days. Maybe I won’t have to bring a rag with me this year to wipe my seat in the north stand if your enthusiasm can enthuse for that also. Good luck.

On 22/12/2023 at 18:50, myview said:

Great to hear the south stand was pressure washed and swept — that’s some job on cold and wet days. Maybe I won’t have to bring a rag with me this year to wipe my seat in the north stand if your enthusiasm can enthuse for that also. Good luck.

Pigeon $hit also wiped off all the northstand and seats too

Our squad has been announced for the Boxing Day clash against Batley Bulldogs.

The squad in full is as follows:

1 – Owen Restall

2 – Perry Whiteley

3 – Ollie Greensmith

4 – Bailey O’Connor

5 – Lewis Carr

6 – Paul Sykes

7 – Calum Turner

8 – Jimmy Beckett

9 – Jacob Hookem

10 – Ronan Dixon

11 – Brad Graham

13 – Louis Collinson

15 – Joe Summers

17 – Jackson Walker

18 – Davey Dixon

19 – Travis Corion

20 – Curtis Davies

21 – Marcus Walker

22 – Bailey Dawson

24 – Joel Russell

26 – Jamie Field

You've missed "Coulson" at 14

The result in this match might not matter, but we all want our team to win and as we have home advantage I am going for a home success.

Dewsbury 30-24 Batley

FTS: Greensmith

MoM: Graham

Att: 1840

Unable to make the game today but in contact with people who are there. Hearing man in the middle may have got a brand new toy for Christmas and appears to be testing it out.

12-12 Full time

Good performance today, if we can cut out the errors then we would have won. Great defence despite spending long periods without the ball. Ollie Greensmith, Brad Graham, Bailey O'Connor worked really hard and really impressed with Curtis Davies and Bailey Dawson. 

Anybody else see the link between the kick off time and the score. 

Should have kicked off 2 minutes earlier, then we'd have pinched it.

I was happy with the performance. Despite the number of hand overs and free kicks we conceded Dewsbury were by far the better side. The Batley pack looked the most ineffective I can remember seeing in a long time. 

2 hours ago, SUPERSTUD said:

Unable to make the game today but in contact with people who are there. Hearing man in the middle may have got a brand new toy for Christmas and appears to be testing it out.

Completely ruined game.  Reckon completion rate must have been close to 10% thanks to the ref.  
He was bad for both sides but hammered us.   Whatever the “new” play the ball rule is - it is ****e.  

17 minutes ago, NickD said:

Completely ruined game.  Reckon completion rate must have been close to 10% thanks to the ref.  
He was bad for both sides but hammered us.   Whatever the “new” play the ball rule is - it is ****e.  

Without a doubt the referee was overly pedantic and spoiled what could have been a very good game. On the other hand our players didn't seem to cotton on to what the issue was, leading to a 25-9 penalty count and a consequent possession deficit throughout.

Against that background I thought that we defended very well, playing most of the game without the ball. There were some very promising individual performances but the team played really well for each other. Compared with many Boxing Day games it was very enjoyable.
 

Batley look as if they are going to be heavily dependent upon loan players from Castleford next season. Their fans would have been quite relieved with the draw.

31 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Without a doubt the referee was overly pedantic and spoiled what could have been a very good game. On the other hand our players didn't seem to cotton on to what the issue was, leading to a 25-9 penalty count and a consequent possession deficit throughout.

Against that background I thought that we defended very well, playing most of the game without the ball. There were some very promising individual performances but the team played really well for each other. Compared with many Boxing Day games it was very enjoyable.
 

Batley look as if they are going to be heavily dependent upon loan players from Castleford next season. Their fans would have been quite relieved with the draw.

Genuine question BSJ. What was the actual issue as far as you could make out?

1 minute ago, SUPERSTUD said:

Genuine question BSJ. What was the actual issue as far as you could make out?

Not playing the ball correctly, I believe.

7 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Not playing the ball correctly, I believe.

Yeah So I hear. But what was the perceived issue. To the book I believe the rule is something like stand up place the ball on the floor in front of you and play it in a backwards motion with your foot. A player must make a genuine attempt to play the ball with their foot. This is where the subjective decision making of a referee comes into play. It’s going to be a veeeeeery loooooong season if today is anything to go by. Get to the stage where players will basically slow time it by playing the ball in almost slow motion thus killing the game as a fast moving spectacle. New risk averse armpit law to come in also and no I don’t want a player’s head knocking off. Just concerned about situations such as tracking a player from behind and hauling them down with a last gasp shirt grab that just happens to be above the armpit. Personally worried about the future of the game!

We need to get smart

Play the ball needs serious attention 

Game management must be better

Wrong choices for me today

12-0 up with about 13 minutes to go

Very kickable penalty within the 20

Kick that 14-0 up and the game is over

Instead we spill the ball in the first couple of tackles, penalty penalty penalty and Batley are back in the game. 

Regardless of it been a friendly we must be smarter.