The Middlesex Sevens was a Rugby Sevens tournament held annually at

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until 2011. It was first held in 1926, and started by Dr J.A. Russell-Cargill, a London-based Scot.Bath, ''Scotland Rugby Miscellany'', p82 The event was held at the end of the rugby union season in May every year for 75 years and moved to August in 2001 due to lack of available stadium dates and players in May. The Middlesex Sevens tournament was last played in 2011, as the new

Premiership Rugby 7s Series The Premiership Rugby Sevens Series is a friendly Rugby Sevens competition for the twelve Premiership Rugby clubs that will play the following season (i.e. the 2010 competition features the teams playing in the Aviva Premiership in the 2010� ...

caused many of the top clubs that previously took part to pull out. This Rugby Sevens tournament was a charitable event, officially called the Middlesex Charity Sevens, with the beneficiaries being Wooden Spoon and the RFU's RFU Injured Players Fund. Middlesex Charity Sevens has raised over £10 million for charities. It was famously won by non-rugby union side Wigan (rugby league) in 1996 and again by a rugby league side in 2001 (Bradford Bulls).

Players

The Middlesex Sevens has seen many notable great players take the field including Waisale Serevi, Eric Rush, Lawrence Dallaglio, Henry Paul, Robbie Paul,

Clive Woodward Sir Clive Ronald Woodward (born 6 January 1956) is an English former rugby union player and coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He also coached the 2005 British & Irish Lio ...

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, JPR Williams, Prince Alexander Obolensky, Frank Whitcombe, David Sole, Va'aiga Tuigamala, Martin Offiah, Ben Gollings, Simon Amor, David Strettle, Josh Lewsey, Andy Ripley and Ollie Phillips amongst others.

History

Traditionally the Middlesex Sevens was an invitation tournament with entertainment derived from overseas and qualifying sides challenging the rugby union top teams. In 2005 the tournament became a twelve team competition with Rugby Premiership teams only participating. In 2008 the tournament reverted to sixteen teams. The 2010 final was played between London Irish who fielded three Armitage brothers and ULR Samurai with a strong international contingent.

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was amongst the teams invited to take part in the 2011 Vauxhall Middlesex Charity 7s. The Final was played between Esher RFC and Samurai. Two

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

clubs have won the Middlesex Sevens: firstly

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

, who brought a star-studded team including Offiah,

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, Andy Farrell, Tuigamala and a young Jason Robinson to Twickenham in 1996 as a tune-up before the union leg of their historic

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series against Bath. Wigan were joined on the honours list by

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is pre ...

, champions in 2002. The Women's Middlesex 7s was introduced in 2011, the final year of the tournament, and was won by Wooden Spoon Women.

List of winners

By wins

References

Bibliography

* Bath, Richard (editor) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing, 2007 )

External links

* {{cite web, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181749/http://ur7s.com/tournaments/middlesex7s, title=Vauxhall Middlesex Charity Sevens, work=Ultimate Rugby Sevens, url=http://ur7s.com/tournaments/middlesex7s, archivedate=3 March 2016 Rugby sevens competitions in England Sevens Rugby union in London