Bradford & Bingley 46-18 Gloucester Old Boys

Bradford & Bingley (pictured) celebrated a double at Twickenham last month by adding the Powergen Intermediate Cup to their promotion to the National Leagues. Geoff Cooke’s side put seven tries past Gloucester Old Boys to add some silverware to the Powergen North One title already in the bag.

Bees captain Barry Clark said, “I’m over the moon - it’s absolutely brilliant. We knew they were going to play it all up front and we knew we had to play away from it and we always had the pace to get around them that way.”

Old Boys player-coach Kevin Dunn said, “We are pleased to have got to Twickenham but they had a lot of gas and they used it.”

The one league difference between the Bees and South West Two Old Boys showed, although the Gloucester side, themselves also promoted, stuck at it throughout. The Bees were well on their way to victory by half time with tries from their back three - wingers Peter Sutcliffe and Stephen Brimmacombe and full back Ben Greaves - plus a conversion and penalty from David Harvey giving them a 20-0 lead. They had lost Christopher Halaufia to the sin bin after just seven minutes but it was a minor hiccup and the Tongan returned to set up Sutcliffe’s try. Brimmacombe scored from a lineout move and then Greaves left Daniel Gombera standing with a run down the left wing.

Gareth Fenwick, who two months ago decided to hang up his boots temporarily to concentrate on his fire service career, pulled back a penalty for the Old Boys. Iain Kennedy was driven over by his forwards to give the Gloucester side a flicker of hope and Fenwick’s second penalty stirred the fire still further. But Harvey’s solo try from 35 metres, which he converted, put the Bees clear again. Nick Cuthbert dived over as the Old Boys came back, but the Bees responded immediately when scrum half Joe Nau scored from the restart. Ian Judson had the easiest of run-ins from Greaves’ pass for Bradford’s sixth try and Stuart Dixon rounded the scoring off with a 40-metre interception.