Ben Barkley

Profile

Current employment  

Why did you join Stourbridge

Toughest opponent and why

Best sporting achievement

Favourite sport, apart from rugby

Favourite food

What’s on your i-pod?

Favourite film

Favourite TV programme

Most embarrassing moment

Ambitions

Ben's interview with Sribbler in october 2008

Educated: B. Tech (Sport), Worcester VIth Form College

Occupation: Self employed painter and decorator

Representative Honours: Midland Colleges, North Midlands, Midlands U18

Debut: v Cambridge (A) September 2008. L 6-8

The hat trick hero from a fortnight ago confessed to never having any particular love for the game of rugby when he first took it up as a four year old playing at Tewkesbury RFC. "I'm sure it was just an excuse for my dad (Simon) to go out and meet his mates on a Sunday morning during the winter. I didn't like it, and just remember being wet and cold. But Dad kept taking me and I kept going." Ben obviously was not scarred for life by this experience and a couple of seasons later he joined the set up at Worcester. In those days he was a flanker, but eventually Ben played in every position from six to fifteen.

"At High School I started as a blind side wing forward, but by the age of twelve I had moved into the backs, settling down as a No. 13 by my early teens. In my early days at Worcester it was hardly the set up it is now, we thought of it as a big shed." Now with the magnificent East stand completed, Worcester boasts the sixth highest average attendance in the Premiership. At Sixways Ben progressed to Colts level, but his development took a disappointing twist when most of his team mates got offered Academy contracts but he didn't. Strangely this doesn't appear to have bothered Ben at all. He even turned down a chance to play professional rugby in Italy before he moved down the road to Stourton Park in the summer of 2007.

"I've never set out any great goals regarding my rugby career, but the move to Stourbridge certainly wasn't taken through a lack of ambition." Ben recalled. "I could have played for Biella, near Venice, but although I turned that down I realised I needed to move clubs if I was to get 1st XV rugby. I wasn't going to get that at Worcester, and the Worcester Wanderers didn't attract me at the level that they play." Even so it was no overnight success for Ben who joined Jake Abbott in the Stour Development XV at the start of last season where he became a key player in a young team that this season has started to drip feed into the senior XV. They had a successful 2007-8 campaign, beating highly rated opposition such as Nottingham.

"Last season was very important, as it helped me to gain a lot of experience that has already proved invaluable this season." There was no greater demonstration of the point when two weeks ago Ben scored a hat trick of tries in just 18 minutes against Wharfedale in the first half. Modestly Ben plays this down. "I didn't have far to go for any of them. There certainly weren't any great length of the pitch tries, the furthest I went was fifteen metres. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time." Perhaps we should put this in the context of the fact these three tries were scored by a twenty year old against a Yorkshire outfit who blew away strongly fancied Bees seven days later. All that before half time.

Ben is a self employed painter and decorator; having worked for a year for his uncle Ian Vaux, earlier this year he set up on his own and trades as Ben Barkley Property and House Maintenance in south Worcestershire. "When I left College I knew I needed to earn some money and my uncle gave me the opportunity to do that. I also gained the confidence to believe I could do this on my own. Though I guess I'm now in competition with him but we haven't fallen out about it!"

Ben has set out no long term plan for his rugby career, but is enjoying this season's experience any the less for the lack of a plan. "Losing last week in Cornwall (to Launceston) was a disappointment, so we hope to bounce back on Saturday." Another hat trick of tries would help Ben ...

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