Not the best time to be joining the team as it was in the last days of its time in the National Leagues, and the team were travelling to Bromsgrove, missing six players who had played in the previous game, and only took four (instead of five) replacements – all forwards), whilst the opposition fielded at least two Worcester Warriors Academy players.

I remember Frank Jameson telling me before the game about this promising young player coming in for his debut.

The photo archives don’t go back to 2012, so the one used is from a few seasons later at Carlisle (Alistair’s the one without the ball).

He score his first try against Bradford & Bingley at Mint Bridge in September 2012

He made his debut on the wing, and made 76 appearances as a wing or centre over the next three seasons, earning his Club badge in 2012/13

He played just once in the following two seasons, but returned in 2017/18 in the back row, and has started almost half his appearances there, despite occasionally being unavailable due to working in places most of us did not even realise there were sheep to shear.

However, (like others) he has made the occasional emergency return to the back division (I think he did on Saturday), one of which was away at Altrincham Kersal in September 2021, when Kris Bratton was injured in the warm up and Alistair started on the wing, and score two of the tries in a narrow win.

He was the choice for website Man of the Season in 2022/23, and has two Man of the Match, away at Sandal and Penrith, this season where despite the competition for back row spots he has made 23 appearances – including three in the new position of second row.

	App	Tries	Points	4/5	6/7	8	11/14	12/13	Rep
2011/12	3	0	0	-	-	-	1	1	1
2012/13	21	5	25	-	-	-	15	6	-
2013/14	26	1	5	-	-	-	10	16	-
2014/15	26	4	20	-	-	-	16	4	6
2015/16	1	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	1
2016/17	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	-
2017/18	9	1	5	-	5	-	1	-	3
2018/19	10	2	10	-	9	-	-	-	1
2019/20	11	1	5	-	5	-	-	1	5
2021/22	9	2	10	-	2	-	2	1	4
2022/23	22	1	5	-	21	-	-	1	-
2023/24	16	2	10	-	13	1	-	-	2
2024/25	23	0	0	-	22	1	-	-	-
2025/26	23	0	0	3	19	-	-	-	1

	200	19	95	3	96	2	45	30	24

There was a bit of confusion as initially it appeared it was last week in the Cup Final he would make the 200h appearance.

It was only when contacted by Dan Stephens, I put the table above together I found the numbers did not add up.

Either a typo or I think more likely I inadvertently overwrote Alistair’s previous 177 appearances with 178, when Reece Thomlinson (who was on 178) made his unexpected return as an emergency replacement earlier in the season.