Pertemps Bees 7 Bedford Blues 15

It wasn't watching his team go down with a terminal bout of stage-fright that bothered Phil Maynard as much as seeing Sharmans Cross Road packed to the rafters.

It was the sort of scene to warm the heart of the resident director of rugby, a welldrilled pack of forwards, driving their opponents off the park, cheered on by a partisan crowd.

Sadly for Maynard the team in question wasn't his and the supporters were more local to Luton than they were Lyndon.

While Bedford's followers turned this particular corner of Solihull blue, the absence of local residents, who were only conspicuous by their silence, made Maynard turn the air blue.

One visiting wag raised a few titters when he asked the home fan to make himself known. There was no response.

And all this with Bees, Saturday's only active senior club for a 30-mile radius, just one game from a first visit to Twickenham and at home to a team they would beat seven times out of ten.

It must make the handful of diehards who tirelessly work for the club, doubt their own minds. That's certainly the effect it's had on the director of rugby.

"It would be nice to see those people every week," said Maynard in wishful thinking mode.

"After a while your interest starts to wane in the public around here. I don't think they are particularly interested in us and I am not particularly interested in them.

"We have played some tremendous football down here in the last few years and we are still not well supported. It may be time for us to take the team somewhere else."

But where? Out of Sharmans Cross Road? Out of Solihull? Out of Greater Birmingham? Out of this world?

"Birmingham, that is our pitch," he continued.

"We are Birmingham-Solihull. We have got to organise ourselves for what we are going do to in the future.

"We have had a special meeting of the membership; everybody is in agreement about that. We know we can sell the club for a pound now and take it forward.

"We are a very rich club assets-wise we own Sharmans Cross Road and Portway but we have got to rationalise ourselves now and see what we want to do as a club moving forward."

Bees do not have a future in their current format. National One is swelling with full-time clubs and as long as Maynard is asked to work with a sow's ear, he'll find it increasingly difficult to produce a silk purse.

The days of beating professional teams on a regular basis on a diet of nothing stronger than Winston Churchill's finest cocktail - blood, sweat and tears - are gone.

Pertemps Bees need fans, finance and facilities. Even the man who kicked them out of the Powergen Shield can see it.

"The facilities here at the moment are a little bit restrictive," pointed out Bedford's match-winning centre Leigh Hinton.

He should know because two years ago, after inspiring Bees to a promising first season under Maynard, Hinton went off in search of better working conditions.

That road took him to Orrell, Rotherham and now Bedford with whom he returned to slot five penalties from seven attempts and ensure that his former teammates remain at least 80 minutes from appearing at Headquarters.

As a former Moseley player and a locally reared boy Hinton is aware of the full-time vacuum in the region's rugby set-up.

"It would be a dream for me as Birmingham lad to play professional rugby in my own city," he said.

"Solihull, the sort of area that it is, really should demand a bigger rugby club. It is a shame that a lot of local boys are having to go elsewhere for their rugby but it has always been the case.

"I was at Moseley as a youth and a similar thing happened there. Players are having to go further afield, to Leicester and Northampton, to play because we do not have something for them in Birmingham.

"There are a lot of good school teams whose players don't have anywhere to go."

The Moseleys and Birmingham-Solihulls might not like the sound of it, but as a talented young man trying to earn a living in a game he loves, Hinton's view is more valid than most.

Not that he showed his old team any affection. Not only was his placekicking more than the hosts could bear, the one penalty he won for himself owed more to the shiny shirt code.

With Bedford 9-0 up and half-an-hour remaining he found himself one-on-one with Nick Baxter. Rather than try and go round the winger he chipped past Baxter and then ran straight into him, throwing himself to the ground. Professional but not edifying.

The referee was convinced and Hinton rubbed salt into the wound as he split the uprights.

As he did in the 80th minute and it was only when the few locals who were present wanted to get home before dark, that Bees opened their account.

Hese Fakatou bashed over from close range, Tim Walsh converted but the game was up. Bees would not be taking their supporters to Twickenham.

Which is a shame really because they'd have come out of the woodwork for that one.

PERTEMPS BEES: D Knight; Takarangi, Woof (Williams-Greenaway, 57), Davies, Baxter; Walsh, P Knight; Le Chevalier, Miles (Merritt 60), O'Keefe, Davidson (Fakatou, 65), Walton (Hurrell, 60), Hughes, Carter (Williams, 70; Long, 80), Jenner.

BEDFORD: Harris; Moir (Staten, 74), Hinton, Allen, Van Wyk; Hepher, Vass; Volland (Tonga'uiha, 59), Johnson, Brooks, Phillips, Brenton, Strauss, Lewitt, Paramore. Replacements: Ross, Stewart, Comb, Malone, Rainbow.

Referee: R Debney (RFU). Timothy Walsh gets his pass away during Saturday's game Pictures/ JEREMY PARDOE ..SUPL: