Following a minute's silence and watched by Tim's family the game got underway and for the first 25 minutes a fierce forward battle ensued that neither side dominated and which resulted in the first 0-0 in scoreline at this point in the match ever.

There were a number of PROPS Barbarians giving their all in this dogged encounter including the ancient George Campbell who was quoted as saying that it was the toughest 25 minutes of rugby of his long life, along with a few of his usual expletives! 

He was then promptly substituted by yours truly who quickly got stuck into the fray and had to count his ribs after the first ruck.  Rob Farmer and Dean Jones played blinders and another PROPS player, Richard Davies, came on in the second half and gave an excellent account of himself.

Bristol forward power then got on top of the Baffers and, after a couple of tries that were set up by the forwards for the girls at the back, Bristol found themselves 19-0 up at half time. 

Following an extended half time where the home side managed to lose 3 match balls and discovered that the groundsman had locked them up and gone home a ball was found and we could re-engage in battle. 

It was more of the same from Bristol who scored to take a 24-0 lead with 30 minutes remaining.  It was then that the referee sought to even things out and give Ba*h a chance of winning the game. 

Following an incident of handbags he promptly sent 3 Bristol players and only 1 Ba*h player to the sin bin including our captain, Dean 'Meaty' Jones!  Despite their numerical advantage Ba*h could only score 19 points during this time as Bristol's defence, honed by Kevin Maggs, dug deep to prevent a rout.

The ref had contributed to making the final quarter interesting as Ba*h remained within 1 score of Bristol.  However, Bristol's dominance with a full team on the pitch showed in the last minute when we went over for a converted try to make the final score 31-19.

So, next year the Ba*h players will need to get their passports out as they head to Rodney Parade to try and prevent it becoming a 5-0 series and we are assured that it will be George's last game (where have we heard that before!) and Dean has also said that he will burn his boots.

It may sound a bit cliché but today's winner was the game of rugby and the chosen charity, Medicins Sans Frontiers as the target of £5,000 was reached taking the total over 3 years to £25,000!

The Bristol team would like to express a huge thanks to our coaches Geoff Moon, Neil Brew, Kevin Maggs and Dave Hilton for the time and effort that they out into shaping us all up and to Chalky Meek for the supply of Bristol away kit for the team.

Thanks also to all of the volunteers at Ba*h who helped to put the event on despite last minute re-scheduling by Sky and we'll see you next year in Wales!

Cheers,

Andrew Humphreys