Ludlow's Mikey Jones enjoys home comforts
Delighted Ludlow coach Mikey Jones is looking for more of the same from his free-scoring side at their Linney fortress on Saturday.
Shropshire rivals Whitchurch make the 50-mile trip down the A49 to face a Ludlow side that have won seven out of nine Midlands 1 West matches on home turf, with one draw.
The latest of those was an emphatic 60-10 success over Old Halesonians, when they ran in eight tries.
“I was very happy with the performance,” said Jones. “It just shows how good we are at home compared to away – at home we are different class.”
“It was certainly a change from last week,” (when they lost at Sutton Coldfield.)
In fact, Ludlow have only won once on the road this season – at Old Hales – although there have been a few near misses.
On Saturday, Tom Amphlett led the way with four tries, while Jack Lines, Joe Doyle, Jim Alderson and Will Sparrow ran in the rest.
It was a busy afternoon for Sparrow, with the full-back adding a couple of penalties to his eight conversions.
And the Ludlow coach wants his side to avenge the narrow 24-23 defeat suffered in Whitchurch back in October.
With Saturday’s victory putting them well clear of the teams near the foot of the table, Jones wants his side to finish as high up the division as possible. And a win over Whitchurch could see them swap places with their fifth-placed hosts.
“We are on the hunt to get up the league and take some points off the teams above us,” continued Jones.
“That’s the new task we have set ourselves – let’s not be content with where we are and start climbing the tables and beating some of these top sides.
“The boys believe we can beat Whitchurch – we were very close on their home pitch.”
n Ludlow have handed over two cheques to charity in the past week.
They have sent off a cheque for £500 to the Doddie Weir Foundation resulting from a pitchside collection during the win over Stourbridge earlier this month.
They have also handed over a a cheque for £168 to St Laurence’s Church, amounting to half the sales of notelets. The remaining half went into the floodlight fund.
Saturday is one of the club’s sponsored lunches with the second one scheduled for March 7, when they play Kenilworth.
