Cleve v St Ives (45-5) - It was snowing when we arrived at the Cleve ground in Mangotsfield to host a touring team from St Ives. Temperatures were touching zero and the cloud cover was not promising. Waterproof trousers and thick coats were the order of the morning.

By kick-off time the clouds had parted and the sun came out. which made for a welcome change.

From the start Cleve dominated the game with two early tries. Despite the absence of Ian Clarke and Andy Priddle the team performed in a well structured format. Sam was playing at scrum half for the first time in over a year and I think he made a pretty good job of it despite having to be spoken to by the referee for feeding at the scrum. The picture above shows a charge down on the St Ives fly half which, if Sam had been successful, would have severely ruined his hair!

The second half continued on the same upward swing for Cleve with Sam moving to inside centre and sneeking a try early on in the half. Towards the end of the game the referee (from St Ives) called "Dying Ant" and all the St Ives players fell onto their backs and started kicking their legs in the air. Not a recognised procedure with the RFU but very entertaining nevertheless.

Final score was around about 45-5 but we were not paying too much attention. Sam had a good game all round and didn't disgrace himself at scrum half.