Blues lose two of their best

Fidler and Freeman depart to stay in the upper reaches and leave Newbury seeking new community coaches

NEWBURY BLUES will be looking for two new community coaches after this week losing prop Tom Fidler and skipper Martin Freeman following the clubs third successive relegation campaign.

Both players will be remaining in the national leagues with Fidler joining his former Blues team-mate Ien Ascroft Leigh at Cambridge while top try scorer Freeman interests several clubs with Taunton at the head of the queue for his services.

Freeman ran in 16 tries for the league strugglers, while Fidler crashed over six times from the front row, including a try-of-the-season effort at Worthing.

“There was an air of inevitability about it,” said Blues director of rugby Andy Widdop. Tom has had a great season for us. He's in his early 20s, still young for a prop and can play at a much higher level and he's going to a team that did well in National One last season.

“And Martin wants to continue playing at a higher level,” he added. “Taunton tried to get him there during the season, but we don't know where he is going yet.”

Andy Gale and George Strang are also likely to seek clubs closer to their university duties at Birmingham and Leeds, although Widdop hopes that they will return once they have completed their studies.