East Midlands have included four Bedford Blues players in their 32-strong squad for the 80th Mobbs Memorial Match against the Barbarians at Goldington Road in Bedford on Wednesday March 14 (7pm).
James Graham, Paul Kendall, Mouritz Botha and Kieran Hallett, all first team squad members at Bedford, were named in the county squad for the annual showpiece fixture after a squad session at Peterborough's Fengate ground.
They are joined by former Bedford players James Shanahan, Andy Phillips, Richard Candlin, James Armitage and James Ball (Cambridge) and Laurence White of Dunstablians.
The Barbarians, who include this season's respective Varsity Match captains Kevin Brennan and John Blaikie, have called Dorian Williams of London Welsh onto their replacements bench.
The game between East Midlands and the Barbarians was inaugurated in 1921 and has been played annually, with the exception of the war years, since.
The match commemorates the achievements of Lt Col Edgar Mobbs DSO who was killed in fighting at Passchendale in July 1917.
Mobbs, a former pupil of Bedford Modern School, played his club rugby for Olney then Northampton, whom he joined in 1904. He captained Northampton in 1905, first played county rugby for East Midlands in 1908 and won the first of his seven England caps on the wing against Australia at Blackheath in 1909.
The following year his leadership skills were again recognised and he was chosen to captain England in their victory over France in Paris.
Mobbs was 32 at the outbreak of the First World War and was considered too old for active service. But he formed a Battalion of Sportsmen from friends and fellow sportsmen and 250 of them joined the Northamptonshire Regiment.
Mobbs was seriously injured at the Battle of Guillemont but he was awarded the DSO for gallantry and promoted to Lt Col on his return to action.
He lost his life leading an attack in a hail of bullets leading his men in an attack on an enemy machine gun post. His body was never recovered from the battlefield and his name is recorded on the Battle Honours List at the Menin Gate.
The Mobbs Memorial Match has remained as one of the major representative fixtures in England since it was first played 86 years ago.
Last year the Barbarians defeated East Midlands 63-17 in an entertaining game with former Wales lock Craig Quinnell setting a record for a Barbarians forward by scoring five tries.
The 80th Mobbs Memorial Match will be preceded by a wreath-laying at the War Memorial on The Embankment at Bedford at 4.30pm.
East Midlands squad:James Graham (Bedford), Paul Kendall (Bedford), Mouritz Botha (Bedford), Kieran Hallett (Bedford), James Shanahan (Cambridge), Tom Orton (Cambridge), James Armitage (Cambridge), James Ball (Cambridge), Richard Candlin (Cambridge), Andy Phillips (Cambridge), Tavela Kwilimbe (Cambridge), James Hawken (Rugby Lions), Kelvin Todd (Rugby Lions), Nick Sharpe (Rugby Lions), Dom Wareing (Rugby Lions), Brett MacNamee (London Welsh), Tokkie Kotze (Bedford Athletic), Mike Hudson (Bedford Athletic), Laurence White (Dunstablians), James Ellershaw (Dunstablians), Stefaan Myburgh (Dunstablians), Chris Kells (Peterborough), Darian Uys (Peterborough), James Clarke (Peterborough), Peter Brudnell (Peterborough), Paul Baird (Kettering), Will Chudley (Kettering), Tom Bridgeman (Kettering), Ryan James (Kettering), Andy Holloway (Wellingborough), Stephen Gall (Wellingborough), Steve Vickers (Wellingborough).
Barbarians: 15 Neil Hallett (Esher); 14 Ben Cairns (Edinburgh), 13 Chris Malherbe (Wharfedale), 12 Mark Bedworth (Wharfedale), 11 Richard Fussell (Newport Gwent Dragons); 10 Jonny Ufton (Cambridge University), 9 Kevin Brennan (Oxford University and Nottingham); 1 David Maddocks (Newport Gwent Dragons), 2 Andy Dalgleish (Newbury), 3 Wayne Reed (Launceston), 4 John Blaikie (Cambridge University), 5 Mark Cornwell (Pertemps Bees), 6 Alan MacDonald (Edinburgh), 7 Tom Johnson (Coventry), 8 Richard Morris (Aberavon). Replacements: Chris Ritchie (London Welsh), Dorian Williams (London Welsh), Brett Luxton (Launceston), Danny Thomas (Plymouth Albion), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Dafydd Lewis (Cambridge).
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