|
2001 saw the Arrows promoted to Division 1 of the British Senior League and placed in the Northern Conference. Based at their
new home of Kings Norton Rugby Club, a tough schedule saw them matched up with games against Birmingham Bulls, East Kilbride Pirates and home and away fixtures against Gateshead Senators, Notting Caesors
and Cheshire Romans.
The Arrows started the season with a pre-season match against Lancashire Wolverines. Played on a pitch resembling a mud bath,
the Arrows ran out comfortable 30-0 winners. The regular season started with back to back fixtures against Gateshead, the Arrows failing to score in both, losing the away fixture 20-0 and the home 12-0.
Despite this, the team gave good performances and should have won the home match , failing to convert good possession into points when they were 4 time inside the Senators 10 yard line.
The Arrows then won their next 2 matches, 27-6 at home to Cheshire and 34-8 away to Nottingham. This set them up for the
visit of East Kilbride. Despite twice leading the Arrows fell away in the second half to see the Pirates win 26-12. Irrespective of the result, this was one of the Arrows best performances in recent
years.
The Arrows then travelled to Cheshire and again took the lead only to lose 12-6. This defeat not only hurt due to the poor
performance, but also due the fact that this was the first time that they had lost to Cheshire in 12 match-ups.
The Arrows next game against Nottingham was cancelled , due to Nottingham being unable to field a team which left the Arrows
with a visit to Birmingham looking for a win in order to make the playoffs. Unfortunately the Arrows completely failed to perform on the day and came out poor 48-0 losers to post a regular season record
of 3 wins and 5 defeats.
The season proved that the club had the ability to survive and compete at this higher level. One noticeable
milestone reached was that the win against Cheshire saw the club post its 100th all time victory.
|
