What a game our last home game was against Leicester Lions, they gave it everything in pursuit of League 1 safety and were roared on by a large travelling contingent who certainly made themselves heard. A friend of mine who was at Frenchay Cricket club complained about the noise! As I say The Lions supporters were very vociferous and I did chuckle that when a particularly questionable decision went against them the strains of the Kaiser Chiefs, “I Predict a Riot”, played loud over the loudspeaker system. Not only did we play them at senior level their youngsters played ours in a pre- Big Match encounter. Sadly our final away at Bishop’s Stortford (change here for Stansted) game did not go as well. A few of us waited with anticipation to watch the 'Live Stream' of the match only to watch a lumpy patch of turf, anyway given the result that may have been as exciting! Alternative entertainment was provided by the Girls under 16 league playing all their final fixtures, one after each other as our girls proved triumphant.

Anyway, we have now come full circle and we welcome Birmingham Moseley for the final league encounter, the side against whom we started our campaign way back in September, although we do hope for a different result! We have travelled the length and breadth of the country visiting faraway places with strange sounding names. We knew it would be a big step up in class and so it was, but we have held our own which augurs well for next season. We produced some tremendous performances, particularly the draw against League Champions Richmond, despite us leading with 10 minutes to go, and the demolishing of Plymouth Albion at home. Next year we will face some familiar names: Tonbridge Juddians and an old foe from the National Cup, Leeds Tykes. Leeds came to Stade Landseer and experienced the somewhat muddy conditions and turned down a crate of beer for the trip home - as they were athletes! But we shouldn't forget The Mall XV who seem to have scraped in at the death, at least we have one local derby to look forward to.

But it's not all about the first XV, a big well done to the Knights in securing promotion after a great win in the 'play off' against Smiths, and well done to the travelling hordes who roared them on. The Warriors too have had a good end to the season and will look to build next year. Our junior section have shown that the club has a great future with the under 16 boys winning the Combo plate.

The Ladies and Girls continue to prosper, although the Ladies found it a big step up after last year’s promotion. The Under 16 girls have won their league at a canter and are now champing at the bit for their National Final at Sixways on May 5th. The Under 18's have provided internationals. As I've said before in this column huge credit must go the all the coaches and support teams across the club for their efforts.

A well done also to Richmond on their promotion to the Championship. Herein for me lies an irony. Some years ago Richmond went bust, but have played themselves up through the leagues to achieve their new status, whereas Worcester, who experienced the same fate just drop straight back in, strange. On the national front I was sad to see such a poor showing from our sides in the premier European Cup competition, with only Northampton stepping up. The whole organisation of the leading clubs needs a great deal of attention. It was good to see two of our old boys making an impact in the Premiership, Deago Bailey, a good Lockleaze lad at Bristol Bears and Ciaran Donaghue starring at Bath, well done lads. Ciaran spoke fondly of the club in the Rugby Paper.

This is the last Oracle of the season, so thank you to our readers and your feedback, always welcome.
Finally, breaking with tradition I am awarding an 'Oracle' for my player of the season. This goes to the never flinching, never say die workhorse that is Will Thompson, well done Will.

And, finally, back to today. Let’s hope for a great game played in a good spirit. So let's get behind the lads, reverse the result of our first encounter, and shove 'em up the M32.

Have a good summer, see you all at The Ball.