IN terms of results, last week was a pretty good sporting week in my book.

England winning the Ashes was pretty spectacular — it’s just a real shame Chris Latham isn’t still at the club to enjoy the victory with us!

Tottenham sit in the top four in the Premier League, which will please my mum’s side of the family.

And, of course, we managed to win with a bonus point at home to Bedford Blues, while Cornish Pirates lost to Rotherham. The first phase of our mission is nearly complete.

Bedford came to Sixways looking to close the gap at the top of the table and fortunately we were more than up to the task.

The scoreline will send a message to other teams that we are improving and can beat any side in this league.

The next challenge is to prove that against the Pirates in a few weeks.

Despite the comfortable 32-0 win, it remains clear there are still a number of areas where we need to improve.

We made too many errors both in attack and defence. We also fell into our ‘55-minute trap’ where things went a little dead, we should actually have won by a good few more points.

We played a Bedford side, who were not on song but were still only a forward pass away from at least two tries of their own. We can expect tougher tests to come and will no doubt need to work twice as hard to keep a clean sheet next time we meet.

Marcel Garvey has rightly come in for a lot of praise this season, but I would just like to second all the positive things that have come out after Saturday.

I have been hugely impressed with how he has played all season, but seeing him tear through the Bedford defence for his second try was a fantastic sight to behold.

I am very excited to get back playing with these guys in the form they are in.

The next two weeks at the club will be very interesting from both a player’s and fan’s perspective.

On the players’ front, we have a group of guys who are training incredibly hard being given a chance to put their hands up and be counted.

Leinster ‘A’ and Plymouth Albion in the British & Irish Cup is the platform for the likes of Willie Walker, Will Bowley, Greg King and many others to stake their claim and break into the squad for the remaining Championship games. I am sure the supporters are looking forward to seeing these guys in action and hopefully providing Richard Hill with some difficult decisions.

We also have a small window of opportunity to develop those who have been playing more regular rugby.

Many of the match squad from the weekend will undertake a mini pre-season to boost strength and fitness levels before we reach the play-offs.

What we should hopefully end up with is a squad of players in the best possible physical and mental shape to finish the job required for this season. These are exciting times.

I mentioned last week I would inform you of the best secret Santa presents. I thought I would finish this article with a small list and see if you can guess who received what. I’ll give you the first one — a nose warmer for Neil Best’s impressive hooter.

The others included anti-ageing cream, a golden table tennis bat, a Hollyoaks ‘hot studs’ calendar, some protective knee pads and a framed photo of Richard Hill. The rest I will leave to your imagination!