STAGGERERS won the 11th annual Old Boot veterans tournament - at the expense of St Ives Old Bulls and St Neots SNOBS - at the Racecourse on Saturday.

STAGGERERS won the 11th annual Old Boot veterans tournament - at the expense of St Ives Old Bulls and St Neots SNOBS - at the Racecourse on Saturday.

The hosts played the first two of the triangular games and opened with a hard-fought 17-5 win over St Neots.

James Pinkney, who was the stand out player on the day in his only game of rugby this season, scored the opening try for Staggerers.

However that lead was cancelled out when St Neots scored in the corner following a lung busting 60-yard chase, making the score 5-5.

However Staggerers were able to use their larger squad to their advantage and eventually ran out 17-5 winners, with further tries from Jason Sutherland and Ben Tranter.

In the second game, Staggerers faced a fired up Old Bulls side, who were forced to include a number of underage players to make up the numbers.

Tackling was fierce and there was much competition for the ball at the breakdown, although both sides made errors when tries looked on the cards.

The deadlock was broken however, when Tranter ran in his second try of the day, which proved to be the only score and meant the hosts retained the Old Boot.

The final game, which was effectively a dead rubber, saw Neots run out convincing winners against Ives, although Richard Rees did manage to pile over for Bulls.

Bruised and grazed Staggerers captain Neil Morey collected the coveted Old Boot trophy and, in recognition of Stags’ 80th anniversary, as well as the close links between the three clubs, commemorative tankards were presented to both St Ives and St Neots.

The final game of the season at the Racecourse is the Stags Presidents Day on Sunday, May 1, with mini rugby from 11.30am and the main Stags 1st XV against a Presidents XV match kicking off at 3pm.

• St Ives Bulls first XV meanwhile, were unable to fulfil their final Midlands Four East South fixture of the season at home against Stamford on Saturday - due to a lack of front row forwards.

It meant Stamford were awarded an 8-0 walkover win and secured them the title.