First Men's 1st XV game of the season
Last week saw Barnes Men's 1st XV start their National League 2 East Campaign against Worthing Raiders. The result was never in doubt after Barnes raced away to a 31-7 lead at halftime, but it was a good result first up for our first proper game of the season, and all the more satisfying because last season we lost in the last minute 36-34 at their place and 25-26 in our home rematch.

There is still lots to work on but the coaches are content with that first performance against tricky opposition. Last week ex-1st XV player and Coach, and Barnes RFC Chairman watched the game live on Cluch TV from his home in Melbourne. Now Chairman of Melbourne Reds (and a tough rugby aficionado to please) I asked him to give us his thoughts from Oz on the Barnow performance, and I think the tough man was actually pleased overall, you can read his thoughts in a separate piece on this website.

Barnow 1st XV this weekend
Talking of difficult opposition, this weekend the Men's 1st XV travel to Guernsey, always a tough game, and too often a side that have outfoxed us, led by the wiliest fox in the woods, Jordy Reynolds. Last season we lost 28-26 at their place and 19-26 at our place, too often we have lost against the islanders, it is time for this trend to stop and we sincerely hope that this week it does! Good luck to the boys!

Barnow 2nd XV face tough challenge against Park last weekend

In an incredibly tough encounter up the road at Rosslyn Park, our 2nd XV had a baptism of fire against a strong Park XV with some top talent on display from the home team.

With 4 tries in short order, Park romped into a halftime lead of 33-7, this didn't really reflect the performance of our lads. Their calibre came to the fore in the second period, during which Park added 5 points and Barnes 10 to make the final score 38-17. I know winning the second half is irrelevant if you don't win the game but the character shown by our boys augurs well for the rest of the season. This weekend the 2's kick off their league season away to Bishops Stortford when we will really be able to measure their progress.

Minis and Juniors and Colts
Last weekend hordes of Barnes young rugby players took to the pitches of Barn Elms and BEST to strut their stuff. Their is a separate piece on the website about bow they got on.

Barnes Women get underway this weekend
Both the Women's 1st and 2nd XV's get their campaigns underway this weekend.

On Sunday, both teams travel to Belsize Park and kick off at 2pm, best of luck to both talented teams, both brilliantly led by Ruth Mottershead and Ashley Brandon, can't wait to hear how they get on.

Here is the Men's 1st XV report in full:

Barnes Men's 1st XV 34 Worthing Raiders 21

On a lovely hot late summer day, Worthing were out of the traps fast, with winger Curtis Barnes cutting through on the angle to give Worthing 0-7 lead after only 4 minutes, Barnes seemingly still asleep. That score woke up the home side and fly-half Louis Ellis scored a penalty after 9 minutes to reduce the deficit to 3-7.

Barnes were warming to their task and confidence grew further as they scored two tries in the 19th and 24th minutes, with Ellis converting both, the first try through number 8 Courtney Raymond on debut who powered over after good interplay between Barnes’s lively forwards, and the second try from another rampaging run from Cam Ruddock, before offloading to skipper Josh Davies taking the score to 17-7 with 15 minutes of the first half to go.

Worthing were very un-Worthing like in the opposition 22, letting a couple of chances go begging through sloppy penalties.
From a scrappy line out in the Raiders 22, Barnes 2nd row Len Ashcroft Leigh charged down the defensive box kick and gathered the ball to score. Ellis slotted the conversion for Barnes to extend their lead to 24-7 with 5 minutes of the first half left.

Worthing committed their third basic error of the half whilst attacking in the Barnes 22, this time also incurring the refs wrath by “over-appealing” and were marched back 10 metres. From the resulting penalty Barnes hoofed the ball downfield, Worthing fumbled twice and the ball was snaffled back by Barnes who crisply dispatched the ball to another debutant, Will Lewin who gleefully touched the ball down in the 45th minute of the half. With Ellis again adding the extras, after 6 minutes of added time, the half time whistle was blown with the home team leading deservedly 31-7.

The third quarter of the game was attritional, relentless defence and commitment from both teams, neither being able to dominate proceedings, but in the 59th minute Ellis slotted home a penalty to extend the lead to 34-7, and Worthing suffered a yellow card to add insult to injury with back rower Will Hoare taking a 10 minute rest.

The game was breaking down as players tired, but an immediate reposte from Worthing from the restart resulted in an excellent break from inside the visitors half, scored and converted by fly-half Matt Maclean, reducing their deficit to 34-14 with 20 minutes left.

With the game in the red, Barnes were turned over in the Worthing half, and another length of the pitch break netted the Raiders another 7 pointer with Jerome Rudder scoring and Maclean converting, making the score closer at 34-21, but the game is all but won by then. One more attacking move by Barnes nearly secures a further try for the home team but that is it, a good solid start and a 5 point home win for Barnes and our campaign is now safely underway.

And finally, here is a summary of this weekend's fixtures:

Saturday 10th September Fixtures
• Guernsey Raiders vs Barnes 1st XV - 2pm KO
• Bishops Stortford 2nd XV vs Barnes 2nd XV - 3pm KO
Sunday 11th September Fixtures
• Belsize Park Women 1st XV vs Barnes Women 1st XV - 2pm KO
• Belsize Park Women 2nd XV vs Barnes Women 2nd XV - 2pm KO

Have a great weekend of Barnow rugby, all played in the original spirit