Old friends and near neighbours Stourbridge will be the visitors at Portway this coming Friday evening (19th August, kick off 7.45pm), as the Bees conclude their pre-season friendly programme.

Birmingham & Solihull and Stourbridge have been regular adversaries in both National League 1 and National League 2 fixtures in recent years, but the Bees’ NL3 Midlands status last season meant that the two sides didn’t meet in the 15/16 campaign.

Friday’s game (rescheduled from the Saturday) will be the Bees’ third preseason outing. They followed up their win against Rugby Lions with another away victory last weekend against Banbury Bulls. The 5-33 score line (one unconverted try to five tries, four of which were converted) was probably a fair reflection of the game which was played in very warm conditions on a hard pitch.

Whilst certainly competitive throughout the game, the Bulls never looked likely to embarrass their visitors and the Bees’ superior fitness and conditioning prevented a concerted rearguard action from the Oxfordshire side in the second half.

“It was another week in to pre-season with a good opportunity for 25 members of the squad to get a run out” said Bees Head of Rugby Pete Glackin. “Our improved scrummaging and line outs reflected the work that we had put in at training the previous week, but there’s still many other areas for improvement that will be in focus this week.”

“It was nice of Banbury to arrange a fly-by by the Red Arrows too, but perhaps next time they can add the black, yellow and red smoke to the display.”

“Being a league above us, Stourbridge are likely to give us a more thorough examination and will be a good test of our mettle and the progress that we have made in our pre-season preparations.”

The rescheduling of the Stourbridge game means that the supporters’ evening originally planned for this Thursday will be combined with the Friday night game.

After the game, there will be a draw to match players and performance staff with supporters in the new “Bees’ Buddy” (aka “Adopt a Player”) scheme recently launched.

Everyone at the Club hopes that as many supporters as possible can make it down to Portway this Friday – a well stocked bar is open before and after the game!