MALVERN SEAGULLS 12pts,

HEREFORD FIRE BRIGADE 31pts

THIS game will be remembered most for a try, which was conjured up by a moment of magical excellence from the Seagulls' captain whose team battled hard against a fit brigade side from Hereford.

It was nice to see Dave Blinstone back on a rugby field guesting for his old watch. Nineteen-nil down at half time, thanks to some superb running rugby by the fit younger members of the brigade side, the Seagulls were finally joined by the lynchpin between the forwards and backs Rob Francis.

With the forwards more than holding their own in the scrums, rucks and mauls, the backs were now almost a full set and able to take their game to the opposition.

Some over enthusiastic passing in a haste to claw back the deficit, only allowed the brigade to increase their lead early on by a further 12 points, running two tries in from their own 22 metre line.

The Gulls' forwards worked even harder to give a good platform for the backs to have a go at breaching the visitors defence and it was from one such ruck that the magic occurred. The distance was unmeasurable, the bravery much the same, the skill factor was immense, the scorer you may have guessed was the writer of this report. The try was converted by Rob Francis who managed to score before the end to give some respectability to the scoreline.

Man of the Match for the Seagulls Roger Demeda was presented with a DIR hat to keep his head warm.