Yet another sunny day, and a large turn out of 12 teams from 10 clubs, including a number of strong teams from Worcestershire (apparently they don’t play football there…).

Team: Alfie, Andrew, Ben, Callum, Christian, Ellis, Owen, Ryan, Toby.

Special thanks to Paul (Alfie’s dad) for diligently keeping score.


Match 1: Barkers’ 6 –Birmingham Solihull 6
As usual the team had parents biting their nails, coming back form 5-3 down to clinch a draw.
First obstacle overcome – we didn’t lose the first game.
Tries:
Toby - 3
Andrew – 1
Ben - 2


Match 2: Barkers’ 6 – Moseley Bulls 4
Now for a much fancied home team, fresh from on-tour victories.
Hat-tricks from speedy Toby and and the jinxing Andrew spoilt their party. For once I reckon we got the rub of the green on a few refereeing decisions – but you have to take your chances and we did.
Tries:
Toby - 3
Andrew – 3


Match 3: Barkers’ 7 – Bournville 5
This match saw Christian get in the game with a hat-trick. All going well….
Tries:
Toby - 2
Christian – 3
Ben – 1
Ryan - 1


Match 4: Barkers’ 4 – Stourbridge 5
Now the tide turned, and a narrow defeat.
Tries:
Toby - 1
Christian – 1
..and 2 others (any claimants?)


Match 5: Barkers’ 5 – Droitwich 6
Now to face a strong team that had won all their group matches.
One move I liked from Droitwich was a start where the receiver ran one way, sucked our players in, lobbed it wide, and through he ran. Clearly something for us to work on next year (passing the ball, and holding defensive lines).
And this time the rub of the green didn’t go our way. A touch of déjà vu (remember Hinkley?) where Droitwich went over on the their knees for what turned out to be the winning try. The ref had clearly read the book about “give them a chance” but obviously hadn’t got as far as ”give them a warning not to do it again” (but then with only 2 minutes left in a festival, what’s the point of that?). Rub of the green against us here. As we have learnt this season, in these tight games you need not only good skils to win, but a bit of good fortune also.
But I think it fair to say that on balance Droitwich were a very well organised side with some runners to match ours, who deserved their victory.
Tries:
Toby – 3
Andrew - 1
Christian – 1


BUT… despite losing two games we did finish runners up in a very tight group. Other teams must have taken points off each other, and the fact that we only lost by very narrow margins must have put us there on try difference.

Well Done! Great effort.


Player of the week: Ben – a good all round performance. 5 tries, good support, and as usual, a large number of trade-mark tags.