Newbury have regularly featured on our fixture list ever since the end of the Second World War. I notice a fixture in February 1947 was frozen off, obviously falling victim to one of the coldest winters on record that caused so much disruption throughout a country trying desperately to recover from the ravages of a world war. They attended our Easter of 1950 when they settled for 3-all draw. I hope the three points each side scored represented tries but I don’t know. Your correspondent remembers getting a cut eye in a match in 1962 but it did evoke some sympathy from a not unwelcome quarter in the bar afterwards I seem to remember. In April 1974 we pulled out of a match against Newbury because we were playing in the Hampshire Cup Final the next day, a decision that didn’t go down too well in some quarters as was made abundantly clear in a letter received by our secretary. In those days cup matches were played on the Sunday and it was the norm to play Saturday as well so as not to interrupt the normal fixture list. With the introduction of the Southern Merit Table in the early 80s it intensified rivalries, exemplified by a 33-all draw in April 1986 when our six tries were largely nullified by seven penalties. Newbury didn’t enter the league when it started in 1987 but we still competed against each other in the Merit Table which continued until 1994/1995. However Newbury joined us in the league the season following its establishment (1988/1989) in the then South West 2 (Level 6). We went our separate ways when, in 1990/1991, we were relegated into Southern Counties and Newbury were promoted to South West 1. We played for a couple of seasons in the Merit Table but were beginning to struggle against them and the final engagement was a cancelled Merit Table match in April 1995. We then had the first major break in fixtures since the war when we didn’t play each other for eleven seasons from 1995/1996 to 2005/2006 but in a match that reflected the relative strengths of the two sides we played their 2nd XV in September 2006. Another four seasons were to elapse before we met in National South West in October 2011. In the meantime Newbury had reached the dizzying heights of National 1 but the withdrawal of a major sponsor proved to be catastrophic and they came tumbling back down the divisions. We were less than generous when we met in 2011/2012 (N3SW) and were instrumental in Newbury being unable to arrest their freefall and they were relegated for the fourth successive time. During five seasons in SW1E, Newbury stabilised themselves and gained promotion to what was to become South West Premier by virtue of a 25-22 win in a play-off at home against Clevedon. Thus last September we met for the first time in six seasons and lost, 21-27. Presently lying 12th in SW Premier, the match this Saturday is crucial if Newbury want to hang on to their Level 5 status. For Bournemouth a win is vital to their credibility as challengers for that third promotion place. Should be quite a match.