The past twelve months have been pivotal ones in the history of rugby in the West Midlands.

Worcester rediscovered the upwardly-mobile trajectory from which Mike Ruddock so dramatically led them away.

Moseley offered more evidence that they prize their level two status and will defend it to their last breath.

And Birmingham & Solihull finally lost the energy to tread water in the Championship deep end, quite how far they will sink is of a concern to everyone at Damson Park.

Post rugby correspondent Brian Dick looks at the days that shaped the past year and quite probably the ones to come, too.

WORCESTER’S MAYDAY

Worcester Warriors 23 Bedford Blues 22 (May 1)

Two tries from Adam Black, commodities usually measured in bushels of hen’s teeth, saw Worcester end 2010 with a half-interested hammering of Moseley.

Five months later Warriors were back in the Premiership by the skin of those teeth and they bring the curtain down on the current calendar year with rising star Matt Mullan in Black’s shirt and Leicester Tigers as the opposition next Tuesday.

If the future is bright the immediate past of 2011 was very much a case of the Year of the Done Job. Promotion was secured, and Premiership consolidation has begun. Yet it might have been so different had Myles Dorrian’s right boot been a little more reliable in the pressure cooker of the a Championship semi-final.

Indeed it seemed for a second as though Bedford’s Australian schemer had not only thought the unthinkable but also made possible the impossible.

With Worcester leading by a point on the last play – and within a fingernail of the relative safety of a two-legged promotion final, Dorrian dropped for glory only to see his attempt drift right.

Tom Arscott allowed the ball to fall dead and then Duncan Taylor hurtled up to touch it down and claim a winning try.

The score that would have wrecked Worcester’s business plan. The points that would have cost Cecil Duckworth millions.

Sixways simultaneously held its breath and searched on the floor for the hearts that had thumped clean through 10,000 chests. Arscott, Duckworth, the whole city were reprieved by a lil’ ol’ TMO.

But most thankful of all was Graham Kitchener, the prodigious young second row whose contribution in the second half of the promotion campaign had been undermined by senses scrambled by his imminent move to Welford Road.

Had Dorrian been successful the Blue and Gold hordes would have carried him there atop a molten-hot pitchfork after he dropped what was potentially the winning score with a premature, celebratory ejaculation.

After that Cornish Pirates were scuttled with a minimum of fuss, since when the Premiership has not exactly been plain sailing but leaky Newcastle should keep Warriors afloat in their all important first season back.

TWO AFTERNOONS IN RE-LEAFY SURREY

Esher 22 Moseley 27 (April 2) and

Esher 14 Moseley 29 (December 10)

For the last six months the fates of Moseley and Esher have been interlocked like treacle-smeared Greco-Roman wrestlers.

They met five times in 2011 and Moseley have prevailed all but once, yet it is not the frequency of those victories that stands out but the significance.

The Red and Blacks made their customary somnolent start to the Championship relegation play-offs. Defeats at Plymouth and at home to Bees dug the hole.

In round three, they begun to climb out with the first of those four wins against Mike Schmid’s men.

But it was the return match, at the Pillar Data Arena, that saved the Moselistas any further anxiety at the end of a tortuous season.

Step forward and take a bow Chevvy Pennycook, undoubtedly Moseley’s player of 2011.

With his side trailing 22-20 with just two minutes remaining Moseley’s level two status was to be decided in the final two weekends – against the sides that had already beaten them.

But from a scrum deep in the Esher 22 Pennycook burst from the base, side-stepped one tackler and then surged, irresistibly through a second all the way to the home line.

Playing out of position and with a shoulder hanging lower than a witch’s nipple, the Bristolian dragged himself and his team to a 27-22 win and second tier safety.

Eight months later, in the current campaign, the rivals met for a fifth time and once again Pennycook and the boot of Ollie Thomas made crucial contributions to a potentially season-shaping triumph.

It is impossible to tell yet what this month’s 29-14 win will do for Mose. Even in the worst case scenario it’s worth a point in the relegation play-offs.

But there is every chance a first away victory of the season, the first time they have recorded back to back successes, could mean the potential Kevin Maggs has insisted is there, is about to be fulfilled.

It was a beautifully balanced performance, fashioned up front, stitched together in the backs. Composed in attack and defence and one in which at least half of the side staked a claim to be man of the match.

It must also have been extremely debilitating for Esher, a side that has not won any of its 14 matches so far this term.

A PAINFUL ALLEGORY

Birmingham & Solihull Bees 22 Esher 30 (March 13)

2011 will go down as the year that might have been – had Bees not shot themselves in the foot. Readers are invited to pick their example but I’ve gone for the first game of the Championship relegation play-offs since hope and despair are so closely juxtaposed.

Bees went into their Pool C opener on the back of a morale boosting win over Rotherham in which their forwards pummelled the Titans into submission. Imagine that nine months on.

At home to Esher in round one they had an immediate opportunity erase the visitors’ three-point advantage, which had carried over from the regular season.

All they had to do was tear into the opposition with relish and job would be half done. They didn’t. Instead they fumbled and groaned their way to a 20-12 deficit, even though Rob Connolly seemed intent on single-handedly dismantling the Surrey side.

Twice Connolly ran out of support, once Rod Petty spilled on the line and Simon Hunt brooded on his wing looking impotent.

Esher held out for a 30-22 victory, Bees didn’t even take a loss bonus, and yet another opportunity to progress was lost not through the invention of opponents but because of self-inflicted wounds.

Relegated and now rock bottom of National One, it is a habit they have yet to kick.