On a bitter winter’s day, it was of little surprise that several games in National 2 East would be called off, and the Barnes Men’ 1st XV game at Sevenoaks proved to be one of them, it will now be played on the 6th January, hopefully!

Centre stage last weekend was taken by our Women’s 1st XV, who travelled to Hackney Ladies and won convincingly 12-29, whilst the mighty Barnes Raiders, our Men’s 2nd XV went to Dorking and became the first Barnes team to beat them home or away in this and last season, no mean feat, especially on The Big Field, winning 17-34. On top of these two games , our Colts won 5 tries to 2, an excellent set of results all round! You can read all about them below!

This weekend is a massive one for both our Men’s and Women’s 1st and 2nd XV’s, all playing at Barnes on Saturday and Sunday, and all taking on stiff competition.

The Men’s 1st XV will be raring to get out of the traps quickly against Tunbridge Juddians, having missed last weekend’s game, and having lost on their two most recent outings. TJ’s are in a rich vein of form recently, and appear to be a much stronger outfit than last season, when we won at Barnes 33-7, although they beat us at their place 35 - 22, one of the few game we lost last year. Last week they came close to upsetting league-leaders Dorking, just falling short 36 - 45 in a high scoring encounter. We ill most certainly be up for their visit, and I know the boys are very keen to get back to winning ways. Also on Saturday, the Raiders take on Bishop Stortford’s 2nd XV, whilst on Sunday it is the Women’s turn to fly the green and gold flag, both taking on Streatham and Croydon at Barn Elms.

It is incredibly important that we as a club get behind all four teams this weekend, please do get down and support the players, they love having you on the touchline screaming your heads off for them!

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes RFC

Saturday 9th December Fixtures

• Barnes 1st XV vs Tonbridge Juddians - 2pm KO
• Barnes 2nd XV vs Bishops Stortford - 2pm

Sunday 10th December Fixtures

• Barnes Women 1st XV vs Streatham & Croydon Ladies 1st XV - 2pm K O
• Barnes Women 2nd XV vs Streatham & Croydon Ladies 2nd XV - 2pm KO

Hackney Women 12 - 29 Barnes Women’s 1st XV - words by Captain Ruth Mottershead

The women’s 1st team travelled all the way to Hackney for a wet, muddy but thankfully not freezing match.

It has been a few years since we played Hackney and it was nice to see our old friends/rivals again. We felt dominant from the start. Our game plan was to punish Hackney with our line speed and cut down their attack, and it wasn’t long before we had success. Hackney fumbled the ball in the half, and our first phase of attack from the scrum saw a back move get the ball out to Rachel on the wing. She ran straight through the defence to score. 7-0.

Hackney kept us pinned in our half for a good period of play, and a yellow card against us put us a player down. Soon after this Hackney had a score held up, but unfortunately this led to another yellow which saw us playing with only 13 for a period. Hackney took advantage of the overlap and scored on the wing. 7-5.

Although we only had 13 players the rest of the half was all us. We kept the line speed up and turned the ball over soon after kick off. Our forwards ran hard lines over and over again to prove the defence. A dummy from Tati saw her break through, and a quick offload to Morv got us right to the line. Kitty then finished it off with a quick pick and go. 12-5.

We finished the half strong, keeping possession and following the game plan. Soon we were back in Hackney’s 22. Once again the forwards drew in the defence. This time quick hands out saw our right wing Liv score in the corner. We went into half time 17-5 up.

Soon into the second half Hackney turned over a scrum in our 22, and a quick run by their fullback saw them score under the post. 17-12.

The rest of the half was all us, we were dominant across the pitch and never looked like conceding. Once again we forced our way back into their half, and this time it was a sneaky run from Taz that got the score. A touch line conversion by El put us 24-12 up.

We kept the pressure on. Hackney had some hard runners but our defence was good enough to match them. Some smart kicks from El and Naomi kept pushing them back. After another turnover we got the ball out to Caroline on the wing who got our 5th. 29-12.

We had a few back line injuries which lead to people playing new positions, with El stepping in at 10 and Liv coming to 13. The last 5 minutes of the game was a solid defensive shift from everybody with some huge tackles going in. Final score 29-12, a bonus point on the road.

Forward of the match was Cam, who carried hard and made crucial turnovers.

Back of the match was Rachel who showed off her pace and was flawless in defence.

Players player was El who had an all round impressive game and covered at fly half.

Trys: Rachel, Liv, Kitty, Taz, Caroline
Cons: Ruth, El

Next Sunday both women’s team are playing at Barn Elms, please come and support.

A report on Barnes Colts by Max Delamain - Colts Captain

By Max Delamain, Colts Captain

Barnes colts have had an electric start to the second half-term showing potential for a very successful season overall. The forwards have had some large opponents but have held their ground and pushed through them, allowing the backs to play fluid, exciting rugby.

Barnes started off against London Welsh with a narrow loss due to a last second try to the Welsh. However the boys did not drop their heads and moved on to secure a strong win against Wimbledon last Sunday.

The return of Elliot Redon, from the dark side (round ball) saw him pick up man of the match with a hat-trick versus the Wimbledon. A barnstorming display versus Welsh earned Finnie Purves points and accolades too. There has been a significant uplift in intensity, cohesion and skill levels all round, to be fair, with much thanks to Dev Hope, our coach.

A constant rotation of players due to school commitments has interfered with barnes reaching their full potential so far. But with school rugby commitments mostly ending at Christmas, the Barnes Colts are only going to go from strength to strength. We are all excited to see these boys fulfil their huge potential this year.

It’s great to see so many lads still involved since the early years of Minis and new players joining us each week. We’ve got a squad of over 45 players! It must be said that squad depth is essential with a packed rugby calendar before Christmas. It’s been great to see our teams gel quickly and compete ‘in the original spirit’.

We also salute Theo Pratt on his selection for Surrey County U18s . The squad are super proud of his achievements, having featured in London Irish academy early in his career, and proving his class week-in, week-out at Barnes.

Dorking Men’s 2nd 17-34 XV Barnes Raiders - words by Dom Palacio

On a bitterly cold December DAY, Barnes Raiders made the trip to rural Surrey to face Dorking 2nd XV. A full squad was available, including a strong bench.

With the weather it was going to be a day for the forwards to "put it up the jumper", to create the platform to unleash the Raiders backs. This they did and were dominant in both scrum and lineout. Despite this advantage the conditions created plenty of unforced errors from both sides.

Raiders would score the first two ries of the day, Skipper Gadsby and wing Darling went over to score, alas no conversions to add the extras, 0-10 to Barnes! Dorking would enter the Raiders 22, five times in the last 20 minutes of the half, but our defence held strong to keep them out and holding them up on the try line to keep the score 2 tries to nil. Dorking however went over right before halftime, which they converted, the half ended 7-10.

The second half would see the Raiders forwards "turn the screw" and as a result, another 24 points would be scored against just 7 more from Dorking.

Final score - 17 - 34

Man-of-the-match was Ben Christie, who was outstanding on both sides of the ball all afternoon