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Top Tens

Mark Hodgkiss8 May 2021 - 19:56
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https://www.kendalrugby.co.uk/

An Introduction

Having run out of season (games) to cover, something different to keep me going through the Summer (or part of it).

Not a review of players who have played outside half, but over the next few months, the top ten in a number of categories from appearances, points, try scoring, kickers, and then in various positions (including outside half).

There was a suggestion earlier in the Winter to have memories of the “Best”, but that is difficult as we can have very differing views on certain players (not least between those who select the team and support from the touchline). Also we tend to remember the more recent players, and those remembered from the past may be with rose tinted spectacles, whilst some may have tainted memories by hanging on a season or two too long, but the reality was often to help out, when despite no longer being at the top of their game, they were still the best available in their position. So this will just be based purely on numbers.

Some positions have been very competitive, especially the back row, where there are seasons when top quality players have been sat on the bench, or in the second team. Whilst in other positions injury and unavailability have meant players regularly playing out of position.

The figures also hide where we have rotated players, so one starts and is replaced at half time. Whilst replacements are included in the stats’, where they played isn’t. In recent seasons one change can signal a whole re-organisation of parts of the team, including moves from back to pack – we have had a number of very adaptable players.

DISCLAIMER : Before we even get going an apology. I know rugby in Kendal did not start in 2000s, but a lot of what will follow will be biased towards those who have played over the last twenty years. Nothing to do with the fact I first watched the team in 1999, but due to records from John Hutton and others being far better from that date.

So there are far more details of players like Chris Park, Duncan Green, Garry Holmes and James Gough who made their debuts in the early 2000s (plus Liam Hayton who did just before) than Billy Coxon or Paul Dodds who started in the 1990s, or David Bell (who still manages to top just about every list), Ian Downham, Mike Healey, and Keith Ridding who came before them.

We have fairly comprehensive scoring records from 1950 onwards, thanks to the work of Peter and Claire Davidson (see page 197 and 198 of the Centenary book), whilst appearance started to be recorded in 1987/88, (before which if you didn’t score you weren’t listed), but detail team sheets with starting positions are only available from 2000 onwards (and even then some are missing, although I have filled in most gaps).

Over the last few years, using match reports found in the Gazette, I have also started to fill some of the gaps from before 1987, and was up to the 1966/67 season (going backwards) before everything ground to a halt over a year ago. Even then in some seasons full teams are listed, and in others it is just those named in the report I have, so often just the scorers. Some games, especially those not played on a Saturday, don’t even get a mention.

When I started looking at things, I had no records pre-1950, so for this exercise they will get little mention. Since then I have managed to put together a list of 630 players who made appearances for the club before 1950. Due to match reports held in the County Archives, I often have more information on players from the early 1900s, than those in the 1990s, as there are full team details and scorers listed.



Since the start of the 2000/01 season there are 559 games that I have details for, and I think 230 different players have made at least one appearance.

Least change has been at No.2 where only 17 players have worn the shirt, 11 of them made fewer than 6 appearances, and 9 of those less than 3, but one player made over 300 appearances there.

At the other end of the scale, the No.14 shirt has been worn by 57 different players, (11 in 2017/18 alone), wing being somewhere you can hide an out of position player, with some interesting names starting there, and that is only in the starting team, so ignores those who found themselves out there due to injuries during a game.

Whilst a number of players have played all games in a season, since 2000 only 8 players have gone through a whole season starting in just the one position – two twice, both in the same position.

Next week (if all goes to plan) I will start with appearances, and despite all of the above disclaimers, only one of those on that list started playing after 2000. There were a lot more games in the “old days” and some of those playing last season will hopefully have plenty more seasons and games to come – once we get going again.

It won’t all be numbers, hopefully a little detail of when some of the players listed made their debuts, played their last games, were awarded badges, plus oddities, like the one player who has started in every positions behind the pack in the last twenty years.


Finally a request.

If you have any information from before 2000s however small (in a shoebox under your bed, or box in the shed), a team list, an end of season list of appearances, a player’s pen picture which lists his appearances and scoring, I would be keen to see a copy, so I can add to and improve the details I have.

Further reading