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2007
On Saturday 19th May 2007, the second Aaron Boyce Memorial Greater Birmingham 7s, sponsored by Broadway Casino, took place.
As in 2006, the weather was not kind and the event was staged in a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers. Despite the mixed weather conditions there were several performances of note. Crowd favourites, the Boyce’s Barbarians, were drawn in Group A with Nottingham Law School Old Boys, who were crowned champions the previous year. Despite a heroic comeback in this group match and a last gasp conversion from the touchline to draw the match, the BaBa’s found themselves group runners up by virtue of goal difference.
This meant if the final was to be reached, it had to be done the hardway and a quarter final against Old Halesonians on one of the outside pitches was the first task. Cruising at half time, the BaBa’s switched off in the second half and their second draw of the day saw an unprecedented period of extra time. Old Hales drew first blood and despite the BaBa’s spending the majority of extra time camped on Old Hales’ line, it was not to be with Hales progressing 27-24!
Meanwhile SGA Barbarians, Woodrush and Nottingham Law School Old Boys all progressed to the semis and ultimately the final was to be contested by SGA and Woodrush. SGA, who had cruised through all their matches, were clear favourites and despite a determined effort from Woodrush and the appearance of a streaker they duly ran out clear victors 36-12, courtesy of a hat-trick by Player of the Tournament Ollie Winter.
In the plate, sponsored by Penguin Recruitment, Birmingham University who played the entire day with only seven players narrowly edged past Harborne 24-17.
2006 – The Inaugural Tournament
Saturday 20th May 2006 saw the inaugral staging of the Aaron Boyce Memorial Greater Birmingham 7s. Despite the poor weather on the day, the event was a tremendous success and enjoyed by all participants and spectators alike. The day ultimately raised nearly £8,000 for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, an enormous credit to all that contributed, thank you.
After an intense day of rugby, Nottingham Law School ran out Cup winners defeating, local favourites, Moseley Former Colts 31-12 in the final.
Despite being on the losing side, Former Colt, Aaron Higgins was unanimously voted Player of the Final by all three Officials presiding over the match. An award that was hugely deserved after several outstanding displays throughout the day.
In the Plate Final, a match that proved to be without doubt the game of the tournament, Selly Oak finally put some silverware in the cabinet after several near misses in recent years. Playing a strong Camp Hill outfit, Selly really got the home crowd going by overturning a 0-14 half-time deficit to run out 19-14 victors after a splendid second half performance.
Read a full report on the entire day’s rugby here.
