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Does anyone know if members get the cheap 'bring a friend' option on Saturday please?

There wasn't a voucher in the Rugby Paper last Sun, so guess it was an offer for the first game of the season only. The only other place would be the Richmond & Twickenham times. Perhaps a 'local' could confirm?

I don't think the members "friend for £5" offer is available for the Bedford game.
However suggest you check with the club office or just get the friend to pay the full price.

What do you do if you havn't got any friends? Paddytaf

I am sure you are more than capable of finding or even phoning a friend or should we all feel sorry for you and say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

There was a flyer knocking around the club offering family entrance, strangely 1 adult, 2 children for £10.

Not sure where you get them from.

Bedford Blue fan here. Can anyone recommend any nearby decent pubs and places to eat at, after the game. Thought we would stay on for a bit and let the traffic die down before journey home? Can you still get a decent pint of Rev James in the clubhouse?
Thanks in advance

Rev James and Tetley have gone to be replaced by Brains & London Pride. Both very drinkable a fortnight ago. Food also good so no need to go anywhere else!

Hi Pheonixblue The Shaftesbury Arms in Kew Road serves a great pint of Youngs. This pub can be found if you turn right out of ODP and head for Richmond, it is about a three minute walk from our ground.

As you walk down towards this great pub you will pass some restaurants which hopefully will be to your choice. You can however find loads of other restaurants in Richmond town centre. As for the Rev James this is no longer available, we now have Brains SA known as Skull Attack good beer or London Pride which IMO is YUK.

Have a great day at ODP, but hopefully not a really great day. PADDYTAF

Yup, the food in the club is very decent. Had some very nice pasties a couple of weeks ago.

If you are staying around late, Mamma (Italian) and the other restaurants down Kew Road are good for evening meals. The Turkish place is becoming increasingly popular too.

Quote:

nld
There wasn't a voucher in the Rugby Paper last Sun, so guess it was an offer for the first game of the season only. The only other place would be the Richmond & Twickenham times. Perhaps a 'local' could confirm?

we don't exist judging by r&t times not even a match report Richmond got half a page though

According to Rugby Times...
'Bedford haven’t conceded a try at this level since Esher's Robbie Shaw scored on April 25th – a total of 349 minutes'.

I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Do you think Dave and I should do them a special price for a package of words and pictures...?

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but that it taking it one stage too far!

What is does show is the quality of the previews that Mark writes for this site and how wide-spread the readership has become. We had just short of 100,000 hits last month, not bad for only our second full month up and running.

If the Rugby Times want to write anything for us in return it would be very welcome......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:10:02:09:55:54 by Dragons' Den.

Does anyone know if the club shop will be open tomorrow?

Many thanks

G

Thanks for your info on nearby pubs and places to eat.
I hope the game is as close and exciting as last seasons game at Goldington road (but with the Blues winners this time).
Forecast is for blustery conditions, so might encourage both teams to keep the ball in hand and run it.

I'm going blind just spotted an article in Richmond and twickenham times looks like I'm ref tomorrow [color=#FF0099][/color]

from the Bedford site:

Just a week on from their first defeat of the season, Bedford Blues have brushed themselves down and are all set for the relatively short journey to London Welsh tomorrow afternoon.

Old Deer Park has been a happy hunting ground for the Blues in recent years having picked up five wins in the last five visits. Bedford will be hoping to get back on track after last weekends loss to the league leaders at Goldington Road, but they know that the Exiles will be a tough nut to crack.

Brendan Burke is the latest addition to Bedford’s injury list after he suffered a knee injury against Bristol and he could be out for six weeks. Gregor Gillanders is facing a month out with a stress fracture while Alex Brown misses out for another week. Mike Guess had a successful operation on his ankle injury although no date has been set for his comeback, but Harry Spencer has a touch of flu. Nick Walshe should be running soon, but Marco Cecere is still sidelined with a shoulder problem and Mike Howard is still out with a back problem.

Director of rugby Mike Rayer makes just a couple of changes for this weekend’s fixture. The injury to Brendan Burke means that Liam Roberts gets the call at outside centre and Luke Fielden gets the nod on the wing in place of Ian Davey. There is also a return to the 22 man squad for flanker Brett Daynes.

Blues forwards coach Martin Hynes said: “Ian Davey has been playing really well, but we feel that Luke deserves a run out following all his hard work in pre-season and last weekend he showed glimpses of what he’s all about. Brett has also trained really well and if he gets his opportunity then he can do the business.

“Although it is one of our closest games it always seems to take an age to get to Old Deer Park and it is a tough place to play. We know that they have a competitive side who are very able and they are playing some very good, expansive rugby at the moment.

“Although they have lost two games this season, we know that they ran Bristol extremely close and we are led to believe that they were quite unfortunate against Nottingham.

“We’ll be taking nothing for granted given previous results and I’m sure it’s going to be a cracker of a game.”

Starting line-up:

15. James Pritchard
14. Ollie Dodge
13. Liam Roberts
12. Ian Vass
11. Luke Fielden
10. Myles Dorrian
9. Will Chudley
8. Chris Goodman
7. Ben Lewitt
6. Sacha Harding
5. Alex Rae
4. Paul Tupai
3. Phil Boulton
2. Dan Richmond (c)
1. Sam Walsh

Replacements: 16. Chris Locke 17. Mark Lilley 18. John Harlock 19. Brett Daynes 20. Darryl Veenendaal 21. Brad Davies 22. Ian Davey.

Its Brains biiter actually PaddyT, which is much more of an all night beer than SA. Also, how can you say that about Pride! Won't worry you I suppose as you will be in the bowls club! I am not going to make it, but will hopefully see you next week. G'us a ring

LW 3-0 Bed

LW 10-0 Bed

LW 10-7 Bed

LW 17-7 Bed

HT

LW 17-10 Bed

LW 20-10 Bed

LW 23-10 Bed

LW 28-10 Bed

LW No12 yellow carded

LW 28-17 Bed

FT

LW 28-17 Bed

Fantastic result. As I may have previously mentioned (!) Bedford hadn't conceded a try, and only a couple of last-ditch tackles prevented us from getting a bonus point. They'd also conceded only 27 points in four games, so for us to score 28 was fantastic. The defence in the second half was immense - we must have spent almost 30 minutes camped in our own 22, including the 10 minutes with Simon Whatling in the bin, but we somehow kept them at bay.

Another positive - I've seen the crowd was 2,200, and although the majority seemed to be wearing Bedford shirts it was a great atmosphere. Associated negative - the queues to get in again. It wasn't clear from the queue stretching halfway to the Shaftesbury that this week there was a dedicated turnstile for season ticket holders. But let's not spoil a great day... Exeter next; bring 'em on!

Had a great day, thanks to everyone that helped me or got out of the way of my crutches. A pox on those who didn't, grrr.

There were some great, flying and crunching tackles which really set Bedford on the back foot, they rarely got over the gain line from the set piece for periods of the game. Just a shame we missed out on that bonus point.

Great game, great performance, and a big crowd too.
"Just a shame we missed out on that bonus point." We were very unlucky there. Didn't the ref call it wrong by blowing up after re-setting our scrum 8 metres from their try line ? Surely, the play hasn't finished?

And from the Bedford site , their match report:-

The disappointment of a first defeat of the season was compounded by a second at Old Deer Park on Saturday afternoon.

March 2002 was the last time that Bedford tasted defeat against the Exiles on their turf but they found it tough going against a rejuvenated Welsh side who are enjoying a purple patch of their own after being docked five points before the Championship kicked off.

One point may have been the difference last weekend, but London Welsh broke the Blues resilient defence early on and never looked back.

Two tries from Luke Fielden kept the Blues within touching distance, but they couldn’t keep hold of the ball long enough to make their attacking flair pay.

“We are disappointed especially because we gifted them two tries in the first half,” said director of rugby Mike Rayer after the final whistle.

“Our play was frantic and lacked cohesion but the bottom line is that we made too many errors. We either gifted them possession or passed it straight to them.

“We had large chunks of that game but we made the wrong calls in wrong places on the pitch. We’re not a young side, we have experience and now we have to sit down, watch the DVD and hold our hands up.”

After a relatively slow start, the Exiles had the first chance to take the lead after Bedford were penalised for not releasing the tackle and full back Aled Thomas dispatched the penalty with seeming ease.

You certainly can’t say that Bedford aren’t attacking minded and Luke Fielden brought the Blues to life when he spotted the slightest of gaps and made a superb run along the left wing before chipping ahead, but the Welsh defence scurried back and cleared the danger.

Bedford continued to press and set up ruck-after-ruck before a neat – or lucky – Will Chudley cross field kick fell straight into Fielden’s hands, but the speedster couldn’t find a way around the stubborn Exiles defence.

After more than six hours of rugby without conceding a try the Blues line was finally breached by Paul Sampson. Myles Dorrian appeared to have time for a low kick, but it ricocheted off a Welsh boot and bounced beautifully for scrum half Nick Runciman who played the ball along the line to Sampson and he darted wide of the defence and over with Thomas converting.

It took less than three minutes for the Blues to reply and it was no surprise that Fielden was the scorer. A lineout ball was collected and driven forward before Chudley and Dorrian went down the blind side to play in the winger and Dorrian converted.

The Exiles went straight into Bedford’s 22 and after three scrums their number 8 Tom Brown appeared to go over but as he did so the ball slipped away from him at the last moment.

The hosts scored their second try in the 33rd minute but once again there was a hint of luck. The Blues were deep in the hosts 22, but as they played the ball along the line Runciman intercepted and kicked on for Errie Claassens to chase. The former Rotherham man beat Chudley in the race and showed good footballing skills to put the ball over the line before diving on it for the score which Thomas converted.

Despite some fine tackles from the likes of Ina Vass and Sacha Harding, the Blues were finding it a tough day at the office and Claasens made another fine break just before halftime, but this time the defence was there and the South African couldn’t find a way through.

Bedford came out for the second half knowing that they had to start taking their chances and Dorrian added an early three points with a sweetly struck penalty.

Unfortunately, three minutes later an infringement at the scrum gave Thomas a chance from in front of the Blues sticks and he made no mistakes with his effort and then added another when Bedford failed to release a tackle.

Dorrian had the opportunity to level the second half scoring, but his effort drifted wide and then things got even worse for the Blues.

Bedford couldn’t keep the ball in hand and as they set a ruck the ball popped out on Welsh’s side and following a storming run by Dominic Shabbo the ball was handed to Claassens for his second try which went unconverted.

Welsh’s Simon Whatling was given a yellow card in the 65th minute after a series of penalties against the Exiles for not releasing the tackle and with the extra man the ball went along the line to Fielden and he went over for his second and Dorrian converted to make it 28-17.

Despite a number of promising looking attacks it was the only score added with the numerical advantage as the Blues just couldn’t finish anything off against an impressive Welsh defence which held firm for a deserved win.

Scorers. London Welsh: Try; Sampson, Claassens (2) – Con; Thomas (2) – Pen; Thomas (3). Bedford: Try; Fielden (2) – Con; Dorrian (2) – Pen: Dorrian.

Teams. London Welsh: Thomas, Sampson, Shabbo (Starling 71), Whatling, Claassens, Ross, Runciman, Williams, George (Gotting 68), Holford (Ward 67), Corker, Powell (Garvey 78), Mills, Beach (Hills 47), Brown. Not used: Lewis, Mackey.

Bedford: Pritchard (Davey 51), Dodge, Roberts, Vass (Davies 60), Fielden, Dorrian, Chudley (Veenendaal 57), Walsh (Lilley 51), Richmond (Locke 65), Boulton, Tupai, Rae, Harding, Lewitt, Goodman (Harlock 75). Not used: Daynes.

Were there any new stands/bars/shops in evidence?

There is always someone who needs to a negative spin on what was an excellent day at ODP and great win.
If you had been there "gogar" and you may have been - you would have seen that there was know new stand and I don't thing the shop was open - However there was a bar at the Pagoda end. Can I also refer you to the programme and the comments by John Taylor and Rob - There is slow but sure progress being made.

It was not my intention to come across at all negatively. I was simply asking a question regarding a topic that was widely discussed 2 weeks ago at the Birmingham game.

Incidentally, I was not there on Saturday,as it involves a 500 mile round trip, and as I was at the Birmingham game, the Rotherham game (a 250 mile round trip) and hope to be at Exeter, it was just too much to manage. I am sorry that I missed what was obviously a great performance and day out. Think that have been owed one given the hundreds of times I have spent wathcing miserable deafets over the years!

JT is assured of my support, as we spoke positively at ODP two weeks ago, and at Rotherham. I am well aware of the positive progress being made.

Quote:

Di Bark
There is always someone who needs to a negative spin on what was an excellent day at ODP and great win.
If you had been there "gogar" and you may have been - you would have seen that there was know new stand and I don't thing the shop was open - However there was a bar at the Pagoda end. Can I also refer you to the programme and the comments by John Taylor and Rob - There is slow but sure progress being made.

Hi Di Bark. As gogar has said his journey to and from his home which is in North Wales entails at least a 500 mile round trip. I have been a friend of gogar for many years now and can confirm that he is without doubt a true LONDON WELSH supporter. His commitment to the club is no less supportive than yours or mine, and as he intends to go down to EXETER next week i think that confirms what a dedicated supporter he is. I hope to meet up with him next week. PADDYTAF

Cracking game and the team looked very fit. A most enjoyable afternoon

Well said paddytaf, far too much sanctimonious sniping going on.

Nothing negative about what gogar asked, just a question after all !

Will see you at Exeter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:10:04:15:15:11 by sheikh yerbootee.

Back to the game i wanted to say what a fantastic day it was down at ODP.

Thought the attendance might have been a bit higher but there you go.

A great win and i was surprised that Bedford went so long at the end of the game needing two converted tries to win, not nearly so close as the away game last year, although they were missing qute a few.

I thought that Tom Brown put in a rampaging, if not a barnstorming performance and he should take a lot of credit.

I thought he ran Errie very close for man of the match, but i'm personally really happy that our latest South African exile got it.

Quote:

Di Bark
There is always someone who needs to a negative spin on what was an excellent day at ODP and great win.
If you had been there "gogar" and you may have been - you would have seen that there was know new stand and I don't thing the shop was open - However there was a bar at the Pagoda end. Can I also refer you to the programme and the comments by John Taylor and Rob - There is slow but sure progress being made.

Di Bark - shame you didn't use your reply to post some more of the positive news from yesterday instead of just dismissing perfectly valid questions.

You could have mentioned that the programme notes promised that the marquee will be in place for the Pirates game in a fortnight and I understand that JT made the same promise during the pre-match lunch.

Also, the new website will be fully up and running on the 11th October according to the half-time announcement.

After the upheaval of the summer months and the subsequent teething problems for the new administration it is only natural that supporters will still have concerns. When the shop, stand and marquee were key aspects of the open meeting it is no wonder that it keeps cropping up as a question.

Turning up at ODP for the Pirates game with the new two-tier marquee resplendent at the pagoda end of the ground will allay many fears and will be something very positive for us all to talk about.