An excellent weekend for the Men’s 1st and 2nd XV, the only teams that played last weekend, both winning tough away games, the 1st XV winning 0-36 on the road at North Walsham, and the Raiders winning 15-21 at Chinnor.

Both games continued the excellent starts both teams have had this season, resulting in them both being in 2nd place in their respective leagues.

This week the Women’s 1st XV are back in action on Sunday, as the 1st XV travel away to take on Hove.
On Saturday, the Men’s 1st XV are away again, this time to Westcombe Park, which will be a tough Kent encounter.

The Raiders, our Men’s 2nd XV, have a tough game on the road away to Blackheath.

Good luck to all our teams this week, may they play in the original spirit we so love at Barnes RFC!

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes RFC

North Walsham 0-36 Barnes Men’s 1st XV - words by Rhino

Barnes Men's 1st XV continued their good start to the season with a 0-36 win away at North Walsham, and lie in 2nd place in National League 2 East, their only blemish being a narrow loss to leaders Dorking a couple of weeks ago.

Barnes got off to a blistering start, with North Walsham old boy Ethan Sikorski, who joined Barnes this year, notching up two tries in the opening 10 minutes.

The Norfolk lads then fought back and held Barnes at bay for the remainder of the first half, snuffing out Barnes attacks, and preventing us playing our expansive games.

The halftime team talk gave us the kick up the backside we needed, ex-skipper Ryan Seabright, rejuvenated after a year's rest, crashed over, and that provided the springboard for an excellent half from Barnes.

Paul Webb went over on the hour mark to secure the bonus point try, and soon after, the ever-impressive Ryan Nixon also scored. As the game drew to a close, winger Chris Stegmann went over to complete a 0-36 lock out for Barnes, in a game that showed both our ability to strike out wide, as well as our forward dominance in the set piece.

This weekend we play old rivals Westcombe Park, another nuggety side who will be out to prove a point no doubt!

Chiswick Vets 24-31Barnes Originals - The Battle of Barnes Bridge - words by Skipper Rich Mayson)
In 1815 in Belgium, Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington finally met as adversaries on the battlefield. They were both undefeated military leaders, this was the fight that people wanted to see. During three days of blood-soaked fighting on three square miles, 150,000 men engaged in ferocious combat. Up until the last moment, it could have gone either way. On another occasion, it might have done.

Barnes Originals finally met our Thames roommates, Chiswick, on the rugby field. This was a fixture we had be trying to get for 18 months. And it didn’t disappoint. Chiswick have won the Middlesex Vets league for the last three years and come highly regarded by two of our players who moonlight for Chiswick.

The off-season transfer market had been busy and this had led to a few new faces joining our ranks. One of them, Robin Bridge, a highly regarded and finely tuned front row machine had agreed to take part in a ruse to fool the opposition (another Rassie MacErasmus master stroke). It went like this: Chiswick will be so terrified of Robin that when they see him ‘pull’ his hamstring in the warmup, they will suddenly feel confident and we can catch Chiswick cold and complacent from the off.

Like all of Rassie MacErasmus stratagems, it worked. Robin went for an early shower prior to any perspiration and the green and gold got out to a three try lead. Our new recruits from last season Charlie Frost and Tom Appleyard were in no mood for negotiating and carried with verve and power.

As is a rite of passage for any Barnes team, we slowly began to lose our momentum and let Chiswick back into the game. Or perhaps it was Chiswick’s slick handling, daring do and cohesion that swung the momentum. Either way, we had a real game on our hands and dared not take our finger off the pulse.

Speaking of hands and fingers, we lost the Polish Express to injury. Marek is our fly half, head of Sartorial elegance and hardest tackler in the team. After one of his trademark ‘chopsaw’ tackles, he fractured his finger. No fanfare just casually walks off and Mrs Mayson drives him to hospital. Imagine my terror of such an Alpha male being alone in the car with Mrs Mayson with his thighs on show. I wasn’t worried, I have a strong thigh game as you all know.

Bursting onto the scene was another new recruit this season, Oli “Hollywood” Horton. Like a Swiss Army knife for the scrum, he powered over from close quarters during the last quarter of the game to put us clear.

But then, out of nowhere, an Evergreen figure appeared - was he friend or foe? Our sleeper agent, Eddie Beck from Ealing, made some devastating carries but then got a yellow card for tripping himself up as the line ‘Beckoned’.

The momentum swung back to Chiswick. They were rewarded with a 7 pointer. Two minutes to go and we are tied 24 - 24. Chris Dickson kicked long and our cattle won us penalty, from which a quick tap was taken and the winning try was scored. The matter was settled, 24 - 31.

Just as the Duke of Wellington got the victory by the skin his of teeth, Barnes did too. Napoleon and The Duke never met again, but we will see Chiswick again soon, I’m sure.
Go Barnow!

Chinnor 2nd XV 15-21 Barnes Raiders (Men’s 2nd XV) - words by Coach Dom Palacci
Raiders travelled to rural Oxfordshire to take on a reinvigorated Chinnor 2nd XV (Falcons) whose 1st XV sit mid-table in National League 1.

After a dominant performance against Dorking 2's the previous weekend, the team were confident of another victory to keep up our progress in Raging Bull Mert league 1.
Raiders had a good confident start and winder Berch went over after 10 minutes with an excellent try on the left wing, his pace getting the better of the Falcons defence, giving Barnes a 0-7 lead.

The Falcons responded with a try of their own within 10 minutes, reducing the deficit to 5-7 after the first quarter.

Both teams exchanged blows and possession, the Raiders set piece was firing well, but the team were struggling for clean ball, which restricted opportunities for the Raiders’ backs.
However, we did go over for a second try, just before the end of the half, which saw us go into halftime 10-14 up.

Chinnor started the 2nd half strongly, and dominated the first 20 minutes, and they actually took the lead at 62 minutes.

The Raiders bench entered the fray, and lifted the team’s performance, closing out the win right at the end of the match. Chinnor did get a late penalty, and camped in the Raiders 22 for the last 5 minutes. Heroic defence from the men in Green and Gold snuffed out Chinnor’s final attack and Barnes emerged with a BIG W 15-21.