Le Match Report

By Samuel ‘French Sam’ Belfond

Zis iz it. The Old Bedians 2013-2014 season comes to an end. A fantastic squad, dashing victories, heart-breaking defeats and galvanizing pre-game speeches from Steven "Braveheart" Bannell have led them to a brilliant fourth position in their league, even if the Didsbury boys can have some regrets with only a few details separating them from the top.

The lovely town of Carnforth was hosting this last game of the season, a season that was also a thrilling means to discover some of Britain loveliest places. This Bedian squad drove to Carnforth in its fun bus, with many injuries, holidays and Vegas trips preventing some of the regular players to be part of this game.

Despite a good warm up and nice speech from team captain Ben Rogerson, the best Bedian team in 10 years (Bannell©) conceded le first try after only two minutes, a bad transmission leading to a 60-meter try for Carnforth, fortunately not converted.

Determined to live up, and above all to have some good stories to tell during their pub crawl to come, the Bedes pulled themselves together and started to dominate the game, with the wind coming from their back. After a kick from the Bedes side, Ryan "Air" Keyes jumped high to seize the ball, passed it to Samuel Belfond who relayed it to Rob Naughton, who accelerated and was able to celebrate his return and first fly-half cap this season for the 1st with a try, converted by captain Rogerson.

The game then started to get a bit loose, with many knock-ons and fouls from both sides, clearly lacking of LE FLAIR for a while. The Bedes forwards however showed great consistency, especially in scrummaging where our front row smashed Carnforth's scrum a few times. This effort was rewarded by a nice forward try later on from Pat Willis at the back of the scrum.

The Backs were feeling a bit like a French man at a beer fest, bored, when Vince Betty, after a lovely switch from Naughton crushed three tackles to score a very Bastareauesque try (Manu who?) just before the whistle indicated the end of the first half (21-5). Knowing they would have to face a much tougher challenge for next 40 minutes, the Bedians were not reassured by those first 40.

Despite those concerns, the White and Blue entered the second half with bravery, defending fiercely and holding their line, hardly being challenged in their 22, even if Pat Willis got sin binned for some reason (forward fouls are often unintelligible for double-digits players anyway). With Jack Wesley Newsome and the rest of the back row being a pain for the home team, the Bedians even managed to play in Carnforth's half and play wide. Two new tries were added to the away team score, with some brilliant moves from the backs, finally showing some flair. Pete ‘Scouse Pete’ Wall went over in the corner after the ball had been through numerous pairs of hands, then Joe Eley took advantage of a quick tap penalty to score towards the end.

Despite a late try from Carnforth scrum half, the Bedians managed to end the season with a brilliant 31-10 away win, showing great steadiness from the forwards and some pace from the backs, even with a few players having their first game on a new position.

Man of the match Jack Wesley Newsome was constantly harassing the opposite team, grabbing loads of balls from his opponents and being rewarded with a MoM. Sean O'Rourke, Pete Wall and Jim Blair (Le sentimental hooker) formed a brilliant front row, crushing scrum after scrum. Captain Rogerson brought pace to the Bedes and made some nice breakthroughs, and Vince Betty was a constant threat for the opponent's line. Finally, honourable mention goes to Michael Gallagher, who showed some fine consistency in drinking all day long, warming up the boys for the night to come as soon as the match had ended.

Le great season comes to an end, as we said above, and the Bedians celebrated fiercely in Lancaster that night, but the tale of this evening of fine boozing shall not be told here, for it is not suitable for children nor sentimental hookers.

Merci et à l'année prochaine, Old Bedians!

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Thanks as always go to Carnforth for being great hosts. We look forward to seeing you again next season.