Lymm RFC v Barnstaple RFC – Saturday 11th April 2026

“Welcome to Barnstaple RFC”

A brief History – Barnstaple RFC is located in the centre of Barnstaple, which is itself the main town of North Devon and is believed to be the oldest borough in England dating back to the 10th century. During Medieval times Barnstaple was the hub of commercial trading, a thriving agricultural industry and a bustling port which exported its wares of wool and pottery worldwide, whilst it imported spices, wine and tobacco thanks to its former river port, located at the lowest crossing point of the River Taw, flowing into the Bristol Channel.

Barnstaple, is also known as Barum, which is a part of its latin name “ad Barnastapolitum”. Barum was mentioned by Shakespeare, and the name was revived and popularised in Victorian times, when it was featured in several contemporary novels, and this is where the name’s current popularity stems from. So, if you hear the name “Barum” being shouted on Saturday, don’t worry, there is a history behind it!

Once again as with many other clubs in the West league, there are close similarities between our two clubs’ histories and the way we operate, albeit Barnstaple is significantly older having been officially founded in 1877, meaning they will enjoy their 150th anniversary next year. The original meeting of the Barnstaple club members, the “Barnstaple Gentleman”, was held at a local hotel, the Fortesque.  Similarly, the “Gentlemen of Lymm” met at the Spread Eagle in Lymm village.

Barnstaple run 3 senior teams, the Chiefs, Barnstaple Athletic and the Barnstaple Buccaneers and  prides itself on being a community focussed club, as do we, with the majority of the players in their senior teams being local lads who have come up from the juniors, through the Colts into the senior teams – ditto!!

Barnstaple also has a very strong Juniors section, with in excess of 300 young rugby players, from under 7s through to under 16s, and there are embryonic Girls Under 15s and Under 18s team in development.

It would be great to reverse the outcome when we played the away fixture  in December 2025 and following our win and excellent performance against Taunton 2 weeks ago, we are looking for a home win this weekend to continue our drive up the league table and to remove any chance of being dragged into a relegation battle. Barnstaple are currently in 7th place, one place above Lymm and with 3 league points between our two teams.  There is no doubt that this fixture will be a very competitive and hard-fought event!!

This weekend we enter round 24 of the 2025/26 season and with 23 games played so far, we are in 8th place with a total of 61 points: 44 points from  wins, plus 17 bonus points. The middle of the National 2 West table is still very tight, with only 9 points between 6th and 11th place.  Below the 11th spot the gap extends by a further 5 points, so every game to the end of the season is important for this group of mid table teams to ensure that they don’t fall into the relegation zone.

Round 23 took our 1st team away to 4th placed Taunton Titans; another first-time visit away to an opponent in the National 2 West League. You may have seen pictures of the Taunton club house and their pitches under 3 feet of water earlier in the season. Well, I am happy to report that through the hard work and generosity of their members, the impact of the flood has been minimised and the facilities are now back in excellent condition – well done to the Taunton members !!

Our previous meeting with Taunton Titans at Beechwood in November 2025 was a close-run match with a 6-point win for Lymm. The return game away at Taunton was even closer with a 1-point win after 80 minutes. This followed a run of 3 converted tries for the Taunton team in the final 7 minutes of the game, with the last try being scored on the final play of the match, giving Taunton a 21-point haul to create the final score of 28-29. Once again, the Lymm team pulled out all the stops and to a man played out of their skins – well done to them all – what a thriller !!!

As ever, an excellent full match report by Andy Leach, can be read on the club website via the following link;

Since my last Presidents Welcome on the 14th March 2026, our 2nd and 3rd Teams have both been successful on the pitch.

Our 2nd XV won at home against Fylde on 21st March by an impressive margin of 82 : 22

Our 3rd XV, the Eagles, won away at Stockport on 28th March by a closer margin of 37 : 41. A full match report of this game can be read on the website via the following link;