IT was fitting that the first winners of the Singleton Trophy were the Help for Heroes side brought by Ben Ryan, the England 7’s coach, to the National Pub 7s tournament at Harpenden Rugby Club.

IT was fitting that the first winners of the Singleton Trophy were the Help for Heroes side brought by Ben Ryan the England 7’s coach to the National Pub 7s tournament at Harpenden Rugby Club.

Playing under the name of Team Nike they easily overcame the Samurai Barracudas 40 points to nil and then very magnanamously handed back their prize money - except of course for some well deserved beer money.

The Singleton Trophy has been donated by Jo Singleton, the widow of David Singleton of Billys Bar in Harpenden and Barneys of St. Albans. David was an enthusiastic rugby supporter, coach and great friend to Harpenden Rugby Club and the club would like to Jo for her generosity.

The day sparkled from start to finish with The Mighty Oaks, of the Oak Tree Harpenden, reintroduced some humour into the proceedings supported in full by the ‘Les Engineers’, who had travelled over for the second year from France. A mention too should go to Friends of Kenya whose enthusiastic supporters kept everybody amused. Les Engineers beat Friends of Kenya 17-10 in the final of the Plate competition while the final of the Barrel competition proved a hard fought affair with BRM beating The Hollywood 7s 29-14.

As was to be expected the quality of the rugby provided by the Elite teams was superb and rightly so with the likes of Samurai, The White Hart Marauders, RAF Spitfires and of course Ben Ryan’s Team Nike playing.

All the action will take place again next year when the club hosts the 46th National Pub Sevens event when clubs from grass roots to first class clubs battle it out.