THIS festive affair was between Bromyards Under 25s captained by Ainsley Ralph and Bromyard's Over 25s captained by Stu Harrison and turned out to be a cracker.

BROMYARD PUPS XV 22pts, BROMYARD STATESMEN XV 27pts

Youthful exuberance against the old heads and it was the old heads who took the lead through skipper Harrison after some hard work by the forwards, this was converted by Reg Dixon to give the Statesmen an early 7-0 lead.

The rest of the half was dominated by the Statesmen's pack but three times disaster struck as through some loose play the Pups got three turnovers and ran the length of the field through Scott Holloway, Ed Tomkins and skipper Ralph who converted two of the three to give the Pups a 19-7 half time advantage.

The second half continued in the same style as the first, however the Statesmen's forwards and half backs kept it tight driving through the middle and this was the undoing of the Pups.

A pushover try from Dave Mann started the fightback and then a score from second row Gibbs left the pups only two points in front with 20 minutes left.

At this point it was getting tasty as Will Tomkins of the Pups and Ian McCulloch decided to have a bit of a dispute and then the Pups were disappointed when the impressive Ed Tomkins was pulled back by the experienced Statesmen's winger and the referee waved play on.

The experience of the older side showed when Dave Mann scored another push over and then they starved the Pups of the ball. Young Ralph kicked a penalty to square it but with nine minutes left Reg Dixon sailed over for the winning score.

For the Pups Rob Ridley and Gareth Walsh impressed as did the attitude in which the game was played.

All the players would like to thank Mark Morris for refereeing this festive fun.