ORGANISERS of the Wayne Barnes charity match ran out of tickets as local rugby fans turned out en-masse to watch a joyful game between some of the sport’s best-known names and a Forest XV.

The annual event, which raises money for the Breast Cancer Now charity, was held at Lydney’s ground and included England coach Eddie Jones who gave Wayne’s team some useful tips.

More than £15,000 was raised – more than triple the amount last year – which takes the fund started in memory of Wayne’s mother-in-law Debbie Broderick to more than £70,000.

High profile names in Wayne’s side included Tom May, Karl Dickson, Shaun Perry, Rory Teague, Kingsley Jones and former Lydney coach Duncan Bell as well as Aviva Premiership refs JP Doyle, Greg Garner and Ian Tempest.

The role of man-in-the-middle was shared by Nick Wood of Gloucester and World Cup and international referees Chris White and Tony Spreadbury.

Matt Kvesic of Gloucester also added his support to the big names that had been previously announced.

The final score – as if that mattered – was 57-71 to Team Barnes but the Foresters claimed man-of-the-match with the honour going to Bream’s Liam Brady.

The largest bid in the auction of rugby goodies and memorabilia was £2,500 for a signed British Lions shirt.

The festival of rugby started off with four games – and four wins – for the younger Lydney teams with Lydney under-13s girls beating Bristol side Kingswood 17-14, the under-12s beating Llandaff North of Cardiff 24-19, the under-10s winning 35-15 against Avonmouth and the under-eights 45-35 winners against Thornbury.

Organiser, and Wayne’s wife, Polly, said: “We had well over 1,000 people through the gate and we ran out of tickets at that point.

“Eddie stuck around for a few hours and had a drink in the clubhouse after his Q and A and learned all about the Forest rugby tradition.

“This was the biggest year yet for our event and we more than tripled what we raised last year for Breast Cancer Now, comfortably taking the Debbie Broderick tribute to more than £70,000 – much of which has been raised as a direct result of these matches in the Forest and the support of the local community.”

Donations to the fund can be made by visiting: inmemory.breastcancernow.org/debbie-broderick

•See this week’s Review for more photographs.