Back

Login

Don’t have an account?Register
Powered By
Pitchero
News & EventsLatest NewsCalendar
Squeaky bum time as Sevenoaks threaten to spoil the party

Squeaky bum time as Sevenoaks threaten to spoil the party

Michael Whitfield22 Jan - 19:31

Barnes Men's 1st XV clung on to won 20-17 in a close run thing against Sevenoaks last weekend

Winning ugly is ugly, but we'll take the 5 points - ugly or not!!
- Michael "Rhino" Whitfield

With 150 ex-players gathered for the 16th Barnes Annual Vets Lunch on Saturday, it was a mixed weekend for Barnes RFC. A big thank you to Angus Graham for organising the lunch, it was brilliant to see so many old faces, and a further thank you to Dave Doonan for organising a dirty dozen of fabulous 70 and 80 year olds, all of whom used to strut their stuff for the green and gold of Barnes – brilliant pictures of the day and gamer can be found in our Barnow on Fire fanzine: Pictures courtesy of our trio of snappers: Jonathan Knight, Jerry Halse and Martin Conway - legends all!

On the pitch, the Men’s 1st XV won a hard-fought contest 20 -17 against a much improved, and never-say-die, Sevenoaks team, whilst their counterparts in the Women came up just short 15-19 against Old Ruts.

The Men’s 2nd XV also was painfully close to a win against the 2nd XV of Championship side Chinnor, on this occasion 12-26

On Sunday our Under 16’s came 2nd to London Welsh 17-24 whilst our Colts also lost to London Welsh 36-24.

This weekend we are knee deep in games again.

The Men’s 1st XV travel to Worthing, a hard side to understand this season, normally there or there abouts but currently firmly rooted at the foot of National 2 League East with only 1 win since September, a close encounter away at Colchester. Last weekend they lost 45-17 away at league leaders TJ’s, which shows how much fight they still have, and we would do well to be wary of slipping up away at the seaside. Incidentally we won at Barn Elms in the first encounter, 55-26.

Our Men’s 2’s take on one of their fiercest rivals Blackheath at home, top of the Halbro Raging Bull league, whilst we are in 2nd place, a real top of the table clash. We lost the first leg of this at their place in September 26-10 so we will be out for revenge that is for sure!
The Originals are in action, also at Barn Elms, against Chiswick Vets, this has the added attraction of being both a league and a cup game!

On Sunday our Colts take on Wimbledon Colts at 11:30am and the Women’s 1st XV take on Blackheath Ladies at 2pm, that promises to be a cracker of a game!
Please do try and get down to Barnes on Saturday for the 2nd XV and Original’s games, and on Sunday for the Colts and the Women’s 1st XV.

It is a big weekend ahead, please do try and support our Men, Women and Lads!

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

For Rugby! For Friendship! For Life!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes Rugby Club

Here is a summary of all the fixtures this weekend:

Saturday 25th Fixtures
• Worthing Raiders vs Barnes Men’s 1st XV - 2pm KO
• Barnes Men’s 2nd XV vs Blackheath - 2pm KOP
• Barnes Originals vs Chiswick Vets – 2pm KO (Double header, league & Cup match)
Sunday 26th Fixture
• Barnes Colts vs Wimbledon Colts - 11:30am kick off
• Barnes Women 1st XV vs Blackheath Ladies - 2pm KO

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 20 - 17 Sevenoaks 1st XV - words by Rhino

On another bitterly cold day, Barnes won in the end 20-17 against the very well organised, and strong defence of Sevenoaks. The game was an arm wrestle throughout, with Barnes behind for most of the game, only hitting the front with a couple of tries in the last quarter of the match.

Poor place kicking saw only one conversion from the seven tries scored by both sides, not a pretty game but sometimes winning ugly is required and this was certainly winning ugly!
Sevenoaks scored right from the kick off after Barnes ill-discipline saw Barnes winger Paul Webb yellow carded, and Oaks took advantage to go 0-5 up.

Barnes dominated possession for most of the first half but, as much as they huffed and puffed, they could not blow down the Sevenoaks defence until the pressure eventually told and allowing Barnes debutant Charlie Rawlins to cut a sweet line through the Oaks defence to score, Barnes levelling at 5-5 on the half hour. Just when it looked like Barnes pressure would add further points, a poor exit and a missed tackle allowed Drew Forrester to dot down just before halftime to make the score at the break 5-10 to the visitors.

Barnes came out of the blocks fast after the break, and this led to two yellow cards being shown to Sevenoaks in quick succession. After the first card, the Barnes pack continued turning the screw, and quick ball reached the hands of winger Paul Webb lurking in between our two centers where he executed a perfect dummy to dart inside the approaching Oaks defence and score, again levelling the score at 10-10 after 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

For a brief period, Oaks were down to 13 players and, with 20 minutes to go, winger Jacques Birch again wriggled through the eye of a needle to continue his prolific scoring record this season, giving us the lead for the first time in the game at 15-10 with 20 minutes to go. Five minutes later, with Oaks well under the cosh, skipper Rory Kassapian adding a further try to make it 20-10.

If any of the home team’s conversions had gone over Barnes would have been home and hosed but as it was Oaks remained in the game right to the end, scoring 5 minutes before the final whistle with a cute blind side move which George Montgomery touched down. With the hardest of kicks, right from the touchline, Ben Adams slotted the conversion much to the crowd’s surprise and with a couple of minutes to go suddenly Oaks sniffed an upset.

A long range penalty sailed wide, which would have drawn the game, and further drama was to come with an Oaks lineout in the last play inside the Barnes 22 but the home side snaffled the ball and kicked it into touch to end the contest 20-17 in favour of Barnes.

Barnes Occies 74 - 33 Farnham 3rd XV - words by skipper Jamie Bass
The Occies kicked off 2025 in style with a 74-33 home win over Farnham. After a string of disappointing game cancellations in late 2024, a full squad turned up hungry for action!
The performance was energetic from the start, with fully committed tackles and aggressive ball carrying setting the tone for what would prove to be a dominant performance. Skipper Jamie Bass came away with the MOTM award, while Felix Whitechapel took DOTD honours for an unforced fumble beyond the try line.

This game set the bar for an exciting second half to the season, as well as introducing a number of new faces who we hope will become Occies regulars in the coming weeks.

Barnes Men’s 2nd XV 12 - 26 Chinnor 2nd XV - words by Dom Palacio
With all games on grass pitches in and around the South East last weekend being off due to frozen conditions, this fixture against the Championship 2nd XV - Chinnor Falcons, was on paper going to be a tough encounter for the Green and Gold. In the away fixture back in October, the Falcons were victorious by over 30 points!

We finally had “square pegs in square holes” in the front row and even a front-row replacement on the bench! Despite an abundance of front row riches, all of the props in the squad hadn’t been on the field of play for at least months due to their combined injuries. It was going to be an attritional afternoon with the Chinnor Falcons having the luxury of their selected front row players - all of whom had played Championship level this season, along with both of their 2nd rows and two of their back row forwards.

Despite the obvious advantages our opposition had in their forwards, we had strength in depth throughout our squad.

The Falcons won the kick-off and would keep hold of possession for the first 10 minutes, our defence was on point and was aggressive but disciplined. The Falcons started to make errors as a result and 11 minutes in, we turned them over. With smart and urgent transitional play, half-backs JJ Paling at 9 and Archie Heard at 10, set an impressive attacking move, culminating with winger Henry Pharaony scoring the first try of the afternoon.

The next 20 minutes turned into an “arm wrestle”, with neither side getting enough possession to put points on the board. The Falcons' possession and dominance increased with resolute defending from us, camped in our 22. Alas, the Falcons finally broke our resilient defence and went over from the back of a maul, set up well off a 5-metre lineout.

At half-time the score was 5 all .

The Raiders were buoyed by a hard-fought first-half performance. Skipper George Gadsby's halftime talk instilled confidence and focus throughout the team.
We started the second half with vigour, and 2nd row Pat Walton scored our 2nd try of the afternoon just two minutes into it.

The Falcons scored their 2nd try 10 minutes later, making it 12 a-piece. Their bigger and more experienced pack started to take its toll and despite yet more resilient defence from us, the Falcons would score two more tries in the last 10 minutes.

Despite our defeat, we put in one hell of a shift. Considering that we had not played rugby for a month, and that our opposition 1st XV was two leagues above us, our performance was awe-inspiring.

Full time - Barnes Raiders 12 - 26 Chinnor Falcons

Further reading