On the day Bournville celebrated their 100th season of rugby, local rivals Old Halesonians cut short the festivities with a convincing victory at Rowheath. The match was preceded by the Bournville Hippos comfortably beating Aston Old Edwardians in a rematch of Bournville’s first ever fixture 100 years ago. However the 1st XV couldn’t emulate the victory as they were beaten at home for the first time in nearly two years.

Old Halesonians responded shortly afterwards with an almost identical try of their own to tie the scores at 5-5. In damp windy conditions, Bournville struggled to gain any momentum in the game. Constant infringements at the break down kept them pinned down in their own half, and only some strong defence, led by stand out player and captain Tom McIntosh, kept the scores even.

Just before the break, the deadlock was broken when another penalty by the Bournville pack gave Old Hales a chance at goal which was duly taken. Despite plenty of endeavour by both teams, the score remained 5-8 at the break.

Playing with the wind at their backs, the large crowd were hopeful that Bournville would turn things around in the second stanza. Old Halesonians were in no mood to party though and continually forced Bournville on to the back foot. They extended their lead 20 minutes into the second half when a quick move down the blindside put their winger clear to touch down. Again, the extras were missed but Bournville were now 5-13 down.

With the set-piece misfiring for once this season, Bournville struggled to gain any territory and things got worse soon afterwards when another Old Halesonians penalty made the score 5-16. As the game drifted into the final minutes, Old Hales’ disruptive and combative style kept the home side at bay and they deservedly came away with the points.

Director of Rugby Rob Sigley commented after the defeat, “The disappointment in the changing rooms after the game shows how much commitment there is to perform every week. The result didn’t go our way but we’ll be working even harder in training this week to get things right in our next match. It would have been nice to reward the club and our supporters with the result they deserved after 100 years of rugby, but it just wasn’t to be our day.”

Bournville will look to get back on track next week with a trip to struggling Solihull followed by the visit of Stoke to Rowheath on Saturday 7th November.

Bournville Line-up: 1.Paul Coles, 2. Dean Bick, 3. Ian Coles, 4. Steve Smith, 5. Rob Griffin, 6. Adam Cristol, 7. Tom McIntosh (c), 8. Nick Southern, 9. Robbie Harlow, 10. Alex Warner, 11. Iestyn Pratt, 12. John Ball, 13. Carl Colvin, 14. Adam Coniff, 15. Alex Ward. Reps: 16. Gareth Clouston, 17. Fou, 18. Rob Sigley. Stand-out player: Tom McIntosh.