In the Royal Navy & Royal Marines 14th North of England Invitation Sevens, Manchester Grammar School comfortably defeated Barnard Castle in the final by 38-0. Both had difficult semi-finals, however, with Manchester overcoming a depleted Sedbergh side by 15-7 and Barnard Castle ‘squeaking’ past Rydal
22-15. It is good to have a new name on the Bowring Trophy, and it is equally encouraging to have sides like Sandbach, John Cleveland and Ellesmere reach the quarter finals of the main competition, along with one of our guests, Cheltenham.
The Plate Competition for the Boodle & Dunthorne Salver was a terrific final in which Bromsgrove just prevailed over Durham by 19-14. The semi-finals in this event were exciting too, Bromsgrove beat Leicester Grammar School - just - 19-17, and Durham saw off the challenge of our other guest side, Christ College Brecon, 19-10.

Two ‘big’ names, Stonyhurst and Kirkham, went out in the quarter-finals as did local sides Calday and Birkenhead, who had done well to reach this stage, the entry this year being strong.