Goodbye Mister Tom
By Leipziger
June 7 2009
Of the four Falcons heading to France this summer, perhaps the one whose leaving has caused most emotion amongst supporters is Tom May, a Newcastle legend who is not a world-beater but has a world-beating heart and, as of yesterday, an England cap.
Born in London, Tom joined the Falcons as a teenager and made his debut as a replacement for Martin Shaw against Bath in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Cup at Kingston Park on 7th March 1999, and his first league start came at the back end of the same month in a 50-odd point defeat at Northampton.
Tom did well enough though to force himself into the side for the 1999 Tetley's Bitter Cup Final at Twickenham, although he was subdued in the 29-19 defeat to Wasps. After a low-key 1999-2000, the Cockney was estsablished back in the Falcons' side for the 2001 Final against Harlequins. May's two tries set the scene for a flourishing finish and his first major honour in senior rugby. It was at this time that Tom also had a run in the England A team at inside centre.
Injuries and the arrival of Mark Mayerhofler in 2002 looked to have set Tom back in his career until he was started on the wing in a key victory against Leicester, and a new position was found for him.
With the Falcons surviving relegation, in 2003/04 Tom scored a huge 15 tries, including hat-tricks against Gloucester, Rotherham and VRAC Valladolid, and was part of the side which won the Powergen Cup against Sale, becoming the only Falcon to start all three of our professional cup finals.
Over the following few seasons May was a model of consistency, with his hard work and strength on the wing winning many plaudits amongst the Kingston Park faithful, and his kicking was also developed into a potent weapon when required, such as against Wasps in February 2005 when he kicked 19 points.
His versatility also led to numerous outings in the centre, and even time spent at scrum-half on occasion, before John Fletcher's belief in moving players around led to our former DoR picking May at full-back against Gloucester in the EDF Cup. Tom's pace and kicking seemed to make him feel at home there, and but for a knock-on on the floor with the line gaping, he would have won that Kingsholm match for the Falcons.
But it was in 2008/09 when Tom finally came out from being a consistent but underrated Falcon and took the team by the scruff of the neck to help drag it away from relegation. Having worn every shirt in the back five in the first half of the season, when Rory Clegg was replaced at home to Gloucester in January, May spent the second half at fly-half and kicked the crucial winning penalty.
His first start at ten was uninspiring against Brive, but Steve Bates put his faith in May at Bristol in February. A top performance of kicking, passing and running set May up for a glorious personal and team run in the second half of last season, including two superb solo tries against Northampton and Harlequins.
And so it was with disappointment that the fans reacted when rumours began that May could be joining Jonny Wilkinson at Toulon next year, and his departure has now been confirmed. However, after 277 appearances and 71 tries, and some top performances in whatever shirt he has worn, who can deny that Tom May deserves our understanding and best wishes after deciding his future lies away from Kingston Park.
He will always be welcome back in the future, and it would not be surprising to see him back in a coaching capacity some day. Hopefully when the Lions are back he can also maintain his well-deserved place in the England squad after his debut yesterday.
Thanks Tom, and all the best.
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When I think of players who are up there with the best of the Falcons, I think of the following:-
Jonny Wilkinson
Pat Lam
Gary Armstrong
Inga
Alan Tait
Carl Hayman
Matt Burke
Tom May
Yes, he's in my list.
I wonder if some of Leipy's pills are missing.
Credit where credit is due, they were full value for money (and more) on Friday night, cracking job they did.
HMC&E and Inland Revenue merged to form HMRC a couple of years ago.
Any way, it's matterless, they're all robbing gyspy bar stewards anyway.
No doubt all of the good people who made HMC&E work have been shuffled sideways, and the useless to55ers who manage to screw up every single transaction to do with PAYE have been put in charge of the whole shebang.
Of the 12 payments I made for PAYE tax year 2007/08 they allocated 1 to somebody else's account, mis-allocated but found again 6, completely lost one. In other words they got 4 right, despite all payments being clearly labelled to account & tax month. Luckily I still pay the bar stewards by cheques, experience has taught me never ever to trust paying them on-line, you need cast iron proof that you have payed the ignorant %%%%s.
This morning, for tax year 2008/09, the stupid bint on the phone got as far as telling me they have lost the payments for months 1 & 2, I didn't bother to listen to the rest, just said I would see them in court.
We should have a hangmans noose permanently installed in the office,. such is their despair most days.
My apologies. A perfectly good thread about Tom has been poleaxed by misery about tax collectors & joy about Take That from 2 grumpy old blokes who should know better. If the populace would prefer, I can delete the off-topic posts on this thread, starting from Mally's perfectly legitimate post about Dodgey being positive.
Patrick