THE North Dorset Sevens rugby festival returned to Slaughtergate with a record attendance of 2000, raising £2,000 for Cardiac Risk in the Young.

In total, 64 teams descended upon North Dorset to compete on seven lusciously green pitches in men’s elite, social, veterans 10s and women’s competitions.

The Men’s social competition included eight groups of four teams in a round-robin and knockout format.

In a hotly contested FJ Chalke Social Cup final Empire sevens, an invitational side based in Bath, came out on top against Young Lives vs Cancer’s Godfathers Academy with a score of 28-12.

South Gloucestershire’s Snuff Pigs 7s won the VX3 Social Plate for the teams finishing second in their groups with a 19-7 win against Bournemouth’s Hurn Airport Windsocks.

Egg Chasers RFC, the nationally renowned rugby podcasters who had put together an invitational team of their listeners triumphed in the Motcombe Garage Social Bowl with a 29-7 win over Marie Curie’s Atomic 7s.

Former Plymouth University teammates VK Wanderers narrowly beat Spring Cucks 7s by one unconverted try to win the coveted Just Pressed Cider Social Barrel for the teams who finish bottom during the group stages.

Four teams competed for the Marshway Contracts Vets Cup for players over 35 in a 10-a-side ‘round-robin’ tournament. The matches were played with 10-minute halves instead of the usual seven.

Egg Chasers RFC took home the trophy by going unbeaten in a group featuring veteran sides from Old Bristolians, North Dorset and Wincanton RFC.

The women’s tournament offered some fierce competition with 16 sides competing in four different groups, with the top two teams heading into the Recharge Fitness Cup and the bottom two teams competing for the South West Tyres Plate.

Bath Rugby Ladies, Barnes Bears, specialist invitational sevens side Cats and London Irish all topped their groups with an unbeaten record and went into the Recharge Fitness Cup.

Bath dispatched London Irish in the semi-final with an impressive 40-7 win but were edged out in the Recharge Fitness Cup final by former winners of Dubai International 31-10.

The women’s South West Tyres Plate was won by Trojans Ladies from Eastleigh with one of North Dorset’s own teams NDS Barbarians making it as far as the semi-final.

The elite men’s competition was ringfenced to a special group of 12 teams playing in three groups.

North Dorset’s own ND Allstars did their home fans proud by topping their group with an unbeaten record.

This was all the more impressive given that they volunteered to move up to the elite competition after a last-minute drop-out less than 24 hours before.

The home side were then unfortunately knocked out in a narrow 17-12 defeat by Immortals sevens in the quarter-finals.

The FUEL10K Elite Men’s Plate competition was vied for in the final by SA Wild Dogs and Taunton’s own Postmen sevens, with The Postmen the eventual winners.

Shredded Ducks, an invitational sevens side from Bristol, have won the Dave Worthington Cup sponsored by Gritchie Brewing Company at ND7s consecutively in the last three tournaments. Shredded Ducks were rarely tested throughout the day only conceding 31 points in six games.

They successfully defended their title by beating Cats sevens convincingly 40-7 in the final.

Dave Worthington’s daughters Olivia and Mary along with Gloucester and Italy backrow-forward Jake Polledri presented the trophy to Shredded Ducks, Polledri ironically being a former Shredded Duck himself on his pathway to professional and international rugby union.

The evening’s entertainment kicked off with British & Irish Lions victory being televised on a huge outdoor screen, with a Sky Sports camera crew even attending to catch the crowd at ND7s for Sky TV coverage.

ND7s 2022 is confirmed for the weekend of Saturday 23rd July 2022. Tickets and information will be launched shortly at www.nd7s.co.uk