T'Other Side: Dewsbury Rams

      

In 2024 Dewsbury have had two head coaches and two captains and all four of them have had recent connections to Fev!

 

Head Coach: Paul March

 

After steering Dewsbury to automatic promotion to the Championship by virtue of finishing top in League One in 2023, Liam Finn announced that he was moving to become head coach of Halifax Panthers. In his place Dewsbury appointed Dale Ferguson as head coach for 2024 but then he resigned as head coach on May 1st but at the same time stated that he wished to remain with Dewsbury as a player.

The club then made the decision to appoint Paul March, who had been assistant coach, as head coach until the end of the season.

Paul March was player-coach at York (2008 to 2009), then Hunslet (2009-2011). In 2012 he joined Keighley as a player and assistant coach and then as head coach from 2013 to 2016. In 2019 he came to Featherstone where he combined working for the Rovers Foundation with various assistant coaching roles including taking charge of the team for their victorious 1895 Cup Final at Wembley in 2021.

As a player, he was a tenacious halfback and begun his first-grade career with Wakefield Trinity in 1997. In 2002 he moved to Huddersfield Giants and then back to Wakefield in 2007. The rest of his playing career was a player-coach (see above).

 

Captain: Paul Sykes 

Jimmy Beckett (prop forward) was a Fev fan as a youngster and started his career there making his début in 2019, a year which also saw him have loan spells at Oldham and Keighley. In 2021 he had several loan spells at Dewsbury and then joined them in 2022.

At the end of July he was transferred ‘home’ to Fev and Paul Sykes took over the captaincy. Paul made his début with Bradford in 1999 and, as far as we know, at the age of 43 he is the only current player to have played in the previous millennium! He went on to play for London Broncos and Wakefield Trinity before joining Fev for the 2015 season and then Dewsbury in 2016. He has also played for England and Great Britain. He has, so far, made a massive total of 538 career appearances, scoring 154 tries, 1,080 goals and 21 drop goals for a total of 2,797 points.

 

Dual Registration and Loans

Dewsbury have a dual registration agreement with Huddersfield Giants which has seen Jack Bibby, Jack Billington and Kieran Rush turning out for the Rams. Joe Hird was on loan from Sheffield Eagles until June. Currently on loan is Reiss Butterworth from Hull KR. Jamie Field and Joel Russell had loan spells at Newcastle during 2024.

 

The Fev Connection

As well as their last three coaches and their two captains this season, we know of 143 players who have worn the colours of both Dewsbury and Fev!

John Bastian (prop/second row) joined Fev having been signed from Milford ARL by Peter Fox. He made his first team début in October 1987 and he made  60 appearances and scored 4 tries before being transferred to Dewsbury in January in January 1992 where he played for the rest of that season making 13 appearances and scoring 1 try.

When Daryl Powell left Fev as head coach in May 2013, Ryan Sheridan, Danny Evans and Sean Long filled in for the rest of that season until John Bastian arrived to take over in 2014. Matters did not go well, and he left in May. He is much better known for developing young players having fulfilled that role at Warrington and Hull KR and is now doing so at Leeds Rhinos.

 

Fev signed Taylor Johnson from Dewsbury in February 1922 and he made a great start with two tries in his first match which was against Salford. Unfortunately, in his fourth game (against Bramley) he suffered a serious shoulder dislocation which ended his career. We do not have any photos of him. If anyone does have one please get in touch!

 

Although born in Leeds, Cyril Plenderleith’s first club was Fev who he joined in 1933. He began as a centre or winger, but then was moved to the pack, playing the majority of his games at either second row or loose forward. He played 53 games for Rovers and scored 12 tries.

Halfway through the 1934/35 season he was sold to Hunslet where he remained for many seasons until he joined Dewsbury in 1947. He only played a few games for Dewsbury before a broken leg ended his career.