T'Other Side: Batley Bulldogs

Head Coach: John Kear

After Mark Moxon was sacked in late June, Batley brought back John Kear who had been their head coach from 2011-2016.

He has been head coach at many clubs: Bramley, Paris Saint Germain, Sheffield Eagles, Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants, Hull FC, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, Bradford Bulls and Widnes Vikings. His most famous achievement was winning the Challenge Cup with Sheffield Eagles in 1998 (beating Wigan 17-8 in the final). He also took Hull FC to Challenge Cup victory in 2005.

 In 2006 he took over as head coach at Wakefield in July 2006 when they looked doomed to relegation but steered them to a miraculous escape when , in the final match of the season, they beat Castleford to secure their Super League status and consign Castleford to relegation.

At representative level he has been the head coach for France, England and Wales. 

He played on the wing for Castleford from 1978 to 1988 making 133 appearances and scoring 37 tries.

 

Captain: Alistair Leak

 

Alistair Leak took over the captaincy from James Brown at the beginning of this season.

He made his professional début with Batley in 2013 has remained ever since, never even going anywhere on loan. This year is his 13th season

He is a hooker and has so far played 252 games and scored 79 tries.

 

Loan players and Dual Registration

In 2025 Batley have a dual reg agreement with Wakefield Trinity and, so far, this year 7 Trinity players have played for them: Noah High (prop), Myles Lawford (scrumhalf), Jayden Myers (centre), Josh Rourke (fullback), Isaac Shaw (prop), Harvey Smith (hooker) and Cain Staveley-Carr (second row).

Currently they have Jacob Bateman (second row) on loan from Bradford and Aidan McGowan (fullback) on loan from Huddersfield.

 

 

The Fev connection

 

There is a long history of players who have played for both Batley and Fev. In our database of all Fev players since 1921 there are 127 that we know of who also played for Batley and there will almost certainly be others who we haven’t discovered so far.

Amongst that list are:

David Jones, winger, began his professional career with Wakefield Trinity in 1981. In January 1987 he signed for Fev. At the end of the season Fev were relegated but he remained at Fev until he joined Batley in November 1987.

His Fev record was played 28 games and he scored 8 tries. For Batley he made 15 appearances and scored 2 tries.

 

Ben Kaye, hooker, started out with Leeds Rhinos in 2008 and spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons as a Harlequins RL player. During the 2010 season he had a loan spell with London Skolars and then came to Fev on loan. He signed for Rovers in 2011and was a member of the Fev team that won the Championship Grand Final that year. In 2014 he joined Halifax and then moved to Batley in 2021.

His Fev record was played 98 games and he scored 9 tries. For Batley he made 34 appearances and scored 2 tries.

Ben is now an assistant coach at Batley.

 

Tim Spears, loose forward/second row, was a Fev supporter as a kid but he began his career with Cas in 2003. In 2004 he went on loan to both Dewsbury and Batley and then signed for Batley in 2005. He was very happy to be signed by Fev in 2009 and remained at Rovers until the end of the 2016 season.

Whilst at Fev he was an important part of the team that won the Championship League Leaders Shield for the four years from 2010 to 2013 and he played in the team that won the Championship Grand Final in 2011. He was captain from 2014 to 2016.

His Fev record was played 201 games and he scored 21 tries. For Batley he made 113 appearances and scored 11 tries.

One try that doesn’t figure in his official stats was an amazing one he scored in a pre-season game against Wakefield in 2012. The referee blew the whistle to start the game and Fev kicked off. A Wakefield player dropped the ball, Tim managed to pick it up and scored a try just 7 seconds in to the match!

Nyle Flynn, who is in the Batley 2025 squad, is the son of Adrian Flynn who played for Fev in 2003.