By Roger Clarke- Evening Mail
August 24 2005

Pertemps Bees have completed the signing of scrum-half Neil Chivers from National Two club Orrell. The 23-year-old former England Students international impressed during preseason training and in the recent friendlies against Stourbridge and Bridgend.

A former Loughborough University student, Chivers played club rugby for Cleckheaton, Leeds Tykes and Rotherham before he joined Orrell last season and was one of the few few players to make an impression in a disappointing campaign in which they were relegated from National One.

He has signed a one-year contract with Pertemps Bees and will replace Tom Richardson who was released at the end of last season and who has now joined Nottingham.

"Neil backed himself to secure a contract with us when he decided to leave Orrell and he was worked very hard to get one," said Phil Maynard, Pertemps Bees' director of rugby. "He's trained hard for a month or so, impressed in both of our games so far and proved that he does not intend to be just an understudy to Paul Knight.

"On his performances so far he is likely to push Paul hard for a first team place and we now have genuine competition at scrum-half."


Brian's Brain-teasers pipped Maynard's Marauders, with Grove's Groovers third to lift the inaugural Pertemps Bees President's Tens contest, and a £500 prize.

Maynard being director of rugby Phil Maynard, Brian is Prof Brian Thomas-Peter, the club's Birmingham University psychologist, and Grove, Lawrence Grove, the club's stalwart director.

The contest, with teams playing 10 minutes each way - 40 minutes in all - in soft sand, had its serious side, providing much needed practice after Welsh rugby giants Pontypool called off yesterday's planned match against Bees an hour after the Sharman's Cross Road outfit set off for South Wales on Friday.

The Welsh giants said they could not raise a team. Bees lost Friday evening's match against Bridgend 18-12, watched by Dean Richards, Harlequins director of rugby, making notes for the first league clash of the season at Bees on September 3.

With no time to arrange another meaningful fixture Maynard said: "We spent Saturday sorting out lineouts and going through a lot of technical stuff then arranged a tens tournament on the beach for Sunday. The sand was soft underfoot so it was hard work but we really did need the game at Pontypool."