Gloucestershire became the most successful county in rugby history when they beat Cheshire 26-23 in the recent Tetley’s County Championship final and wrote their name on the honours list for the 17th time. They had been neck and neck with Lancashire at 16 wins each before also becoming the first county to win the title under the new format which saw the top 16 counties battling for their day at Twickenham.

Although Cheshire opened strongly with two penalties from the boot of centre Paul Brett, Gloucestershire had three tries on the board by half-time, the first from full-back David Knight, converted by wing Scott Pollock, who then added a touchdown of his own. Scrum-half Paul Knight, David’s brother, scored try number three, with Pollock converting, making it 19-6 at the break.

Cheshire fought back with tries from wings Martin Sutton and David Strettle, which Brett converted to bring the scores to within one point at 19-18. Gloucestershire replied quickly, however, when David Knight scored again and Pollok converted. Although Cheshire skipper Geoff Jones added another try on 43 minutes, it was Gloucestershire’s day for making history. Dave Knight, carried up the Twickenham steps to claim his Tetley’s County Championship medal having damaged a hamstring in the fray, said, “This is a day I will certainly remember. I would have struggled up for my medal even if my leg had been hanging off!”