Bournville will say farewell to two popular front row forwards, James Weaver and Stef Thorp, at Saturday’s National Two West match against leaders Clifton at Avery Fields (3pm).
Hooker and Club Captain Weaver will make his 120th appearance before he retires from first team rugby to take up a new role with the Blues, the club’s second XV.
Prop Thorp has also chosen the Clifton match for his swansong as he retires after a distinguished career that has been spent mostly in the National Leagues with Dudley Kingswinford, Birmingham Moseley, Stourbridge and, for the last two seasons, Bournville.
Both will head into retirement with the thanks of everyone at the club, led by Assistant Coach Alex Grove.
“In what has been a difficult year for the first team, Weaves has been a very good leader on and off the field,” Grove said.
“As an experienced player he is often a sounding board for the wider group and I am delighted that he will be sticking around next season, albeit in a different capacity helping out with the Blues as Second XV coach, which is something that we have missed this season.
“It’s great for the club that we will still have his presence around and that he can still have an influence on the younger players.
“I thought Stef was our most consistent player last season and if it had not been for the dominance that he gave us at scrum time there was a good chance that we would have been in the position we are now 12 months ago.
“He has given us dominance at the set piece and for someone at this stage of his career to regular churn out 80 minutes is really impressive.
“He leaves a massive hole to fill and we are hugely grateful for the effort he has put in and his contribution to the club over the last two seasons.”
Weaver and Thorp both return to the starting XV against Clifton among four changes to the side beaten at Cinderford last week joining James Burgoyne in the front-row. Burgoyne will be making his final home appearance against Clifton before he moves to Devon although he is due to play his last match at Devonport Services in two weeks’ time.
Mikey Ho, who helped the Blues win promotion last week, forms a new centre pairing with the returning Sam Grimshaw with Joe Jenkins switching from centre to full-back and Nathan Decalmer from full-back to the left wing.
Birmingham University student Henry Harper returns to the squad as a replacement having made his debut against Luctonians three weeks ago.
Bournville’s battle against relegation ended last week when the try bonus point secured at Cinderford was not sufficient to keep alive their hopes of gaining more points than the second-bottom side in National Two North.
They will be reprieved as a consequence of the expansion of next season’s RFU Championship.
Bournville’s objective now is to avoid finishing bottom with their lead over Devonport Services – where they end the season next week – now reduced to three points.
Clifton head to Avery Fields fresh from beating Camborne at Cribbs Causeway last Saturday, a win which saw them overtake the Cornish club to become new league leaders with a three-points lead.
Clifton could be crowned champions on Saturday if they secure three or more points at Avery Fields and Camborne slip up at home to Devonport Services.
Bournville | 15 Joe Jenkins; 14 Will Loftus, 13 Mikey Ho, 12 Sam Grimshaw, 11 Nathan Decalmer; 10 Jacob Fewtrell, 9 Reiss Price; 1 James Burgoyne, 2 James Weaver, 3 Stef Thorp, 4 Nick Murphy, 5 Ben Meakin (C), 6 Kieran Henderson, 7 Adam Shaw, 8 Jonjo Fanning.
Replacements | 16 Jake Bailey, 18 Clarkson McLeod, 19 Harry Dawson, 19 Joe Nellany, 20 Henry Harper.
*Saturday’s match is being generously sponsored by Innes England, who are an award-winning property consultancy covering Birmingham, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham.
We thank Innes England for their continued support of the club.
