If you are sitting comfortably we will begin at Billingham, where the Percy Parkas are the visitors. As the wheels on Percy’s bus no longer seem to go round and round, I think we can probably see young William Ingham taking a small “w” from the North East derby, in a dish and spoon running away type scenario; Maybe not a sound thrashing, but enough to see the sides change places in the ladder. Percy seems to have lost the plot in recent weeks, having lost 5 on the bounce, where Billingham have kept on the fair to middlin’ path all season.

Next up, we visit Plastique Bertrand. After their giddiness last week and the 35 point haul they amassed, perhaps Burnage will fancy a scalp when Chester comes a-calling this weekend? Well I think a few of us thought Chester would eventually bottle it, but there they are still at the summit. Burnage to go close on the plastic, but Chester to claim the win, I think is the safe bet. Burnage have managed to sneak to sixth in the table while nobody was looking and a four point haul would see them possibly jet as high as fourth, but as I said, I think Chester will be good enough to trouser the spoils.

The Gate take on Lymm and unfortunately I will have to back The Gate to clobber Lymm and keep coat-tailing Chester, and although a loss for Lymm would see them slip sliding close to the bottom dwellers, they probably have enough swag in their bag, with 48 league points, to stay clear of the trap door; Having said that, Lymm did manage to beat Chester at Chester, so they might do for Betty’s Boys too, especially if they can play against the din of the diggers revving their engines.

Kendal hosts Birkenhead Park and they could do us a massive favour by pinching a win. Kendal are still not mathematically dead in the water, but the fat lady’s closest friends must be booking tickets for her performance at Mint Bridge. Let’s hope they go down fighting and claim a five pointer on Saturday afternoon.

Rossendale face the run up the M6 to Penrith and on current form I would have to say I fancy that Mr Fourie and his merry men must be in with a good chance of claiming four or five points here, and with it sending Penrith within climbing distance of our outstretched talons. Penrith are good on their own patch and own the unusual distinction of drawing two fixtures at home this season, splitting a decision with Sandal 20 apiece and also ending up level with Birkenhead Park at 17-17 - the only drawn games in the division this term.

The final game in our little rumble around is Sandal versus Waterloo. Angus seems to have his men ticking over nicely and they are still the form team in the division having won twelve games on the trot now. I can’t see anything other than a home win here, partly because of Sandal’s imperious form and the fact that Waterloo’s form is up and down like a bride’s nightie.

So that leaves us to focus on our own little tumble here against West Hartlepool, and what do we know about today’s visitors?

Wests are the lowest scoring team in the division having acquired 321 points in their 20 games thus far. You don’t need a calculator to work out that is an average of sixteen points a fixture. They have scored 42 tries this season, 18 by the backs, 20 from the forwards and 4 off the bench. Their leading points scorer is Stuart Waites who has 119 this season – 22 conversions, 19 penalties, one Drop Goal and three tries. Leading try scorer is Adam Coates who has tucked away five scores but he is supported by a gaggle of players who have all pocketed four this season: Andrew Rollins, Andrew Davies and Luke Watson.

Unfortunately Wests got the better of us when we visited their spot earlier this season, winning 30-28. The Bees points were scored by Richard Scull, Richard Tafa, Adam Wellington and Guy Ford. The game was won by a late drop goal by Stuart Waites. Last season Wests also beat us up at their place by 23 points to 11, although we did garner some revenge with a 31 points to 12 victory in February.

The Bees points in that victory were scored by Richard Scull, Giles Hetherington and Fordy with a brace.

We have some news emanating from the Bees changing room in that Richard Scull and Chris Fisher are both still unavailable through injury this week; Benny Greaves is unavailable as he is at a wedding and Matt Robinson is away on the slopes. Other than that I believe we are good to go. Unfortunately I wont be at the game myself as we are having some “special” photos of great grandma taken as she waits to get the telegram from the Queen. We have told her that these are definitely the last ones she can send in to Readers’ Wives.

Keep on Keeping on.

Scoop

Below: Richard Tafa goes over in last seasons fixture at Wagon Lane.