The bulldogs entered a squad of 19 players who were supported by a further collection of four older lads, an 18 year old sister, 19 parents and grandparents and two perennial tourists who just came along for the tour.

Three mini buses left Brighton in the wee hours of Friday morning to rendezvous with the 8:00am ferry and the other families who had stayed the night in a hotel in Weymouth. Sadly the people who had stayed in Weymouth arrived later at the ferry and in a much worse state of mind.

On to the peninsula hotel in Guernsey. Jake who was our Guernsey expert directed us there EVENTUALLY.

The first Friday was spent coaching in the hotel grounds and included a trip into the metropolis of St Peters port – primarily for Jake’s shopping - although Charlie Spring insisted on buying his mum a present. Many of us did go to the pub next door for lunch (the Hourmet) but the landlord didn’t want us to come back (despite advertising itself as a place for families with a kids menu) as he thought "his regulars wouldn’t like it so please don’t come back". We rounded the day off with an evening meal at the hotel. Here we met up with Wimbourne rugby club who out sang John Taylor even though he used to be world champion (at what we never found out). The kids sensibly went to bed at a reasonable time – unlike their parents.

The Saturday started by training on the beach and then onto the rugby club for the competition proper.

Brighton entered two teams and both teams played extremely well – one team being unbeaten on the first day with a startling performance of support play and attacking and tackling against N.Dorset. It seemed that the better the opposition the better the Bulldogs played.

The evening entertainment was more dispersed with one group going for a pizza in town – at which
Doris and Geoff, who are Sean’s grandparents, proved themselves to be absolute stars. In the mini bus coming back a big sing was had by all – led off by James K. with the Bulldogs rap. This is a song that the bulldogs made up inviting another rugby club to "eat their shorts".

Later on the evening entertainment involved a little bit of conversation in the bar, a few more songs and people were enjoying it so much they stayed up and chatted some more. The hotel decided to give us our own bar at this point.

On Sunday the games continued with one of the bulldog teams drawing against N.Dorset which was the only point that they dropped in the competition. The previous game had proved one of the highlights of the tour when James K tackled a Guernsey attacker close to our line. The attacker spilled the ball which was picked up by another Guernsey player. He was immediately tackled by Kitto, and that player spilled the ball backwards. Another Guernsey player picked the ball up – just in time to be hit in another hard tackle by Alex Spurgeon, followed by Charlie Spring and so on – until eventually the Bulldogs tackled the Guernsey team all the way back to their own try line. Even the Springboks cannot use tackling as an attacking weapon as well as the Bulldogs.

Brighton A came first and Brighton B came third

THANKYOUs

Neil Thomas for being our coach and encouraging us all to play for enjoyment rather than the winning
The boys for playing so well
The boys for behaving themselves so well
Paul Spurgeon for all the hard work arranging it all
Pete Smith & Brian Spring & Paul Spurgeon for driving the mini buses
Jake Onyett for his deep and detailed knowledge of the island and its road layout
The landlord of the pub next door for being so welcoming