A season of consolidation: monthly fixtures from the Manchester and District Pool, Saturdays turning out for Old Salians, and a new captain.
Matthew Whiteley took over from Neil Mason. The Spartans hosted their third invitational clinic for their American friends in March, and ended the year in Cologne at the Hürth Sevens, where they reached the final of the Plate. Brett Dawson was Player of the Year.
A season of consolidation, played to the pattern set the year before and closed with a tournament in Germany.
After the summer break, the Spartans carried on from strength to strength, playing matches from the Pool each month and playing for Old Salians at other times. Matthew Whiteley took over the captaincy from Neil Mason. Simon Stanley was chair.
The Manchester and District Fixtures Pool, which predated the present league structure, suited a club not yet ready for the weekly demands of a league: sides listed themselves as available and arranged matches against opposition of a similar standard, when they wished to play. Alongside it, the arrangement with Old Salians continued to give Spartans players competitive Saturday rugby.
The club’s own results pages from 2003 have not survived, so the season is pieced together from other people’s records. The Caledonian Thebans’ fixtures table carries the only score that can be tied to a date: a 13-7 win at Sale on 28 September 2002, the first meeting between the two clubs. In April 2003 David Smyth gave The Observer the rest of the year, two wins over Eccles by 38-17 and 26-7 and a win over Didsbury Toc H, against defeats to Broughton Park, Oldham and Warrington. He called the Eccles games hard and very physical, and put the season’s difficulties down in part to injuries, fractured cheekbones among them. The Observer also watched a home game against Old Bedians. Neither the dates of those matches nor most of their scores were ever published.
The Spartans hosted another invitational rugby clinic for the American teams, as they had the previous January. It was first announced for January 2003, but the Caledonian Thebans’ newsletter, notice board and fixture list all place it across the weekend of 13 to 16 March 2003, and it closed with a match at Sale on 15 March. Players came from the Caledonian Thebans, the Gotham Knights, the Washington Renegades and the Dallas Diablos for a weekend of coaching, a friendly and a good deal of partying.
For the end-of-season tour the lads travelled to Cologne, Germany, and competed in the Hürth Rugby Sevens tournament. They made it to the final of the Plate, and won 200 beer tokens for their efforts.
Brett Dawson was Player of the Year and Jules Wilkinson Most Improved. Neil Mason, having handed on the captaincy, took the Chair’s Award, and his successor Matt Whiteley the Queens Boots. Shaun Ells was Supporter of the Year.
By the standards of the years on either side of it, acceptance into the Cheshire Rugby Union and the first Bingham Cup before, upheaval at Old Salians after, it was an uneventful year. The partnership with Old Salians, which had given the Spartans a ground and a route to competitive rugby since 2000, held for one more season. The host club then struggled through 2003–04 and dropped out of the league at the end of it.
Matches
10 matches on record, 1 of them with a score. Source: the Caledonian Thebans' own fixtures table, newsletters and notice board, captured December 2003 and April 2004, the club's own site as captured in 2003, and The Observer, 4 May 2003.
| Date | Home | Score | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Sep 2002 | Spartans 1XV | 13 – 7 | Caledonian Thebans |
| 21 Dec 2002 | Spartans 1XV | No score recorded | Eccles |
| 15 Mar 2003 | Manchester Village Spartans and USA all comers | No score recorded | Caledonian Thebans |
| 03 May 2003 | Spartans 1XV | No score recorded | Kings Cross Steelers |
| Date not recorded | Spartans 1XV | No score recorded | Eccles |
| Date not recorded | Spartans 1XV | No score recorded | Didsbury Toc H |
| Date not recorded | Broughton Park | No score recorded | Spartans 1XV |
| Date not recorded | Oldham | No score recorded | Spartans 1XV |
| Date not recorded | Warrington | No score recorded | Spartans 1XV |
| Date not recorded | Spartans 1XV | No score recorded | Old Bedians |
| Team | Award | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| First XV | Player of the Year | Brett Dawson |
| Most Improved | Jules Wilkinson | |
| Club | Supporter of the Year | Shaun Ells |
| Chair's Award | Neil Mason | |
| Queens Boots | Matt Whiteley |
| Group | Role | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Committee | Chair | Simon Stanley |
| Captains | First XV Captain | Matt Whiteley |
Spartans 1XV13 – 7Caledonian Thebans
A 1pm kick off at the club's home ground in Sale, and the first meeting between the two clubs.
The score comes from the Caledonian Thebans' own fixtures table, which records the result as 13 to 7 against them. The Thebans' newsletter of February 2003 remembers the trip: those who went down to Manchester in the autumn would tell you how much fun they had, and how often they stopped on the way home.
This is the only score from 2002-03 that can be tied to a date. The club's own results and match report pages were on its 2003 website and the Internet Archive never captured either of them.
Spartans 1XVNo score recordedEccles
Announced on the club's own site: the next match of the season, on 21 December against Eccles, at the Old Salians ground off Dane Road in Sale.
The Spartans beat Eccles twice in 2002-03, 38 to 17 and 26 to 7. David Smyth gave both scores to The Observer in April 2003 and called the games hard and very physical. Neither score is tied to a date by any source, so neither is placed on a fixture here.
Manchester Village Spartans and USA all comersNo score recordedCaledonian Thebans
A 2pm kick off at the club's home ground, the match at the end of the club's third annual invitational rugby clinic. The Spartans put out a composite side with their American visitors, and the Thebans recorded a defeat but never filled in the score, so none was ever published by either club.
The clinic ran across the weekend of 13 to 16 March 2003 and drew players from the Caledonian Thebans, the Gotham Knights, the Washington Renegades and the Dallas Diablos. Manchester gave the visiting overseas players first call on being hosted in members' homes.
The club's own written history dates this clinic to January 2003. That was the month first announced; the Thebans' newsletter, their notice board and their fixtures table all place it in March.
Spartans 1XVNo score recordedKings Cross Steelers
The yearly meeting with the Steelers, at home. The club's own site billed it on the front page and invited supporters to come and cheer, and the Thebans' newsletter confirms the date independently, adding that they played the Steelers' B team on the same weekend.
No score survives.
Spartans 1XVNo score recordedEccles
The Spartans beat Eccles twice in 2002-03, 38 to 17 and 26 to 7. One of the two meetings was the fixture of 21 December 2002; the other is undated. David Smyth told The Observer that both were hard and very physical games.
Recovered from The Observer, 4 May 2003.
Spartans 1XVNo score recordedDidsbury Toc H
A win, one of three results David Smyth gave The Observer for the season alongside the two victories over Eccles. No score and no date were published.
The Observer prints the opponent as Didbury Toc H. Didsbury Toc H is the club, and the Spartans met them regularly in the league seasons that followed.
Recovered from The Observer, 4 May 2003.
Broughton ParkNo score recordedSpartans 1XV
One of three defeats David Smyth gave The Observer for the season, with Oldham and Warrington. No score and no date were published, and the venue is not stated.
Recovered from The Observer, 4 May 2003.
OldhamNo score recordedSpartans 1XV
One of three defeats David Smyth gave The Observer for the season, with Broughton Park and Warrington. No score and no date were published, and the venue is not stated.
Recovered from The Observer, 4 May 2003.
WarringtonNo score recordedSpartans 1XV
One of three defeats David Smyth gave The Observer for the season, with Broughton Park and Oldham. No score and no date were published, and the venue is not stated.
Recovered from The Observer, 4 May 2003.
Spartans 1XVNo score recordedOld Bedians
A home game against Old Bedians RUFC, played on a damp afternoon and watched from the touchline by Rachel Cooke of The Observer, standing with Elaine Smyth and the players' partners. She wrote that the Spartans did not, ultimately, romp to victory, and she was moved by the day. No score was published.
The visit came a few days after a training session at the Old Salians ground in Sale, and several months before the article ran on 4 May 2003, so the match belongs to the first half of the season. It is not one of the three defeats David Smyth listed by name.
Recovered from The Observer, 4 May 2003.
