North Wales Crusaders can confirm the signing of Jamie Dallimore who returns to the club following a successful period in North Wales between 2013 and 2016.
The halfback arrives on the back of a period out of the game, and Dallimore has expressed his gratitude to have been offered a lifeline by the club.
In an interview with Conrad Anderson for the club’s website, Dallimore said: “It feels good to be back and I’m grateful for this opportunity.
“I feel that I have unfinished business for the club personally because I didn’t leave the way I wanted to previously, nor was it the club’s fault at the time.
“I now get the chance to ‘right a few wrongs’ and resurrect my career at North Wales Crusaders.”
Dallimore became a fans favourite in his first stint which saw him at North Wales between 2013-2016, and believes that further success can follow in 2025: “If we can put together what we have been in training, we can certainly do something again this season, and hopefully it will be a special year.”
The 36-year-old who made a name for himself at Barrow Raiders post North Wales Crusaders, recalls facing the Welsh club in the I Pro Sport cup final in 2017 in Blackpool, where the Raiders were the victors.
“It was bittersweet to be honest, I think North Wales Crusaders had Gloucestershire All Golds in the semi finals and I was hoping they turned you over , it didn’t turn out that way but as a player I’m a winner, I’d rather be on the winning side than the losing side, although that day the best team lost, we just had a lot of experience to get us over the line.
“It was a tough game, I’ve got a lot of friends at North Wales who were there on the day, obviously I didn’t want to gloat or celebrate too much, or to be arrogant or ignorant, I just tried to enjoy the day as best as I could.”
With Betfred League One set to see the introduction of a Super Eights play-off format at the end of the season, in which the top four in League 1 will join the bottom of the Championship to determine promotion, Dallimore is hoping to utilise his experience playing in the Championship with both Barrow and Crusaders: “League One gets tougher every year, and obviously we now have Goole Vikings that have come in and by all accounts they are spending big money, and will no doubt be a tough side as they will get good recruitment in Yorkshire.
“I’ve trained for four or five weeks now with the squad, and what I’ve seen with what we got, we have a very good, young, energetic squad and we’ve made some good signings.
“I’ve settled in pretty quickly, the lads have looked after me since I’ve come in and pre-season has been enjoyable – something I wouldn’t normally say about pre-season, as they normally grim but this one has been good so far.”
In 2021, Dallimore was hit with a three year ban from sporting activity following a first anti-doping rule violation in which a tablet taken while playing amateur football was the cause.
Reflecting on his period out of the game, an emotional Dallimore said: “It was tough to take mentally, there were some dark days, luckily I had my partner Steph, my two boys and my family around me to help me through it.
“I held my hands up, it was probably the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life and I’ll punish myself for that mistake for the rest of my life, as I have to live with that.
“I’m not sure what made me do it, it was just a bad call at a bad time, it was out of competition I didn’t realise I was cheating, it was naive, but when I look back at it now, I realise it was stupid and bad.
“I wouldn’t want anybody to go through what I went through, just if it’s not right, work harder, obviously I’ll learn from my mistake and that’s why I’m more grateful than ever that I’ve been offered a lifeline by North Wales Crusaders to finish my career the right way and hopefully if we can get it right every week, we should be in for a good year.”
He added: “When it went all wrong for me, I knew I’d be back just because of my family, I’ve had a good career and I never wanted it to end in that way, everything happens for a reason, good or bad, but I knew I’d be back, weather it was back at North Wales or playing amateur with my mates, which kept the fires burning.”
On the prospect of playing in front of the Crusaders supporters once again, Dallimore said: “It will be good to play in front of them again, as I said, I didn’t sign off like I wanted to last time and they’ve always welcomed me with open arms when Ive come back as a spectator.
“They’ve been good with me and my family, I’ve have two sons, one of them has not seen daddy play before, so I wanted to right that wrong and hopefully I can do that in the Widnes friendly next month and push on to get better and better every week.”
