Bears Beyond The Gate

In this week's show Pete and Miles review the Friday night harem scarum defeat to Gloucester with help from many listener contributions and the Deputy Manager of the Bristol Bear Factory, Lewis.

It was one of those games where every single statistic was in our favour apart from the one that matters, that is, the final score and perhaps on another day we would have strolled to victory. But we didn't.

That said, the Cherry and Whites played with purpose and passion and undoubtedly forced us into frustrating errors that gifted them a lot of points. We give our views as well as comment on the general atmosphere of this season's first home game back at the Gate. Fortress or Forgettable?

The good news is that we are currently sitting third in the table but have to visit them down the road next Saturday. Are there grounds for optimism? You bet there are.

We also reveal further commercial link ups with the Apero Bar, comment on Gengey's contract extension and finish with the return of a fan favorite - what gets my goat?

There are at least four!

All this and more.

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This week we review the start of the Premiership with the gritty but points-profitable win away at Newcastle. 

Was it a solid start with a few leanings or rather as good as you might expect given the time of year, the weather and the fact that they are coached by Steve Diamond?

We read out listener thoughts, both poetic and prosaic, give our views on the game and forensically analyse Bennard Janse Van Rensburg's post match interview in full.

Next stop is Ashton Gate for the first renewal of the Rifles Cup and we hear from Ed Price from the Cherry Jam pod before discussing our predictions for the game. 

We also plug a brand new alcoholic drink offering that you'll see on Friday but you'll have to listen right up to the end of the pod to find out which ex-player will be setting out his stall for the faithful.

All this and more on Bristol's premier (and only) fan pod.

Up the Bears!

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The boys get Season 6 (yes 6!) off to a solid start from the world famous Bristol Beer Factory and 'talk about' the following things:

• The Big Day out - good, bad or a bit of both?
• The new home and away kit - obviously good but just how good?
• The pre-season game vs Dragons - Miles and Pete report back along from a wet night at Clifton RFC with a bonus post-match sound bite from Pat and a during-match one from Harry Randall.
• The season ahead - the squad is discussed.
• Miles' 'merch' - the Duke comes up with a scheme to make even more money involving stackable pint pots

It's great to be back....

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The lads finally manage to organise a time to meet up and record their final thoughts on what turned out to be yet another roller coaster season for the Bears.

They run through the season and their memories of each game, reveal the results of the listener vote and outline one final Lee-related Goat. Has he managed to secure a seat for next season or have sinister forces been at play working against his desire to come in from the cold like a modern day George Smiley?

Listen right to the end to find out!

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In this week's pod we re-live our epic journey to SW London on the Supporters Coach where we experienced, quite simply, one of the best rugby away days ever.

We loved the Stoop...

We loved the running rugby...

We loved the ale and the Chicken Caesar burger (albeit a bit pricey)

And one of us loved the cheeky little techno DJ...

What a day, what a win and what a shame Sarries let us down. Oh well, at least Pete can play cricket on a Saturday, Miles can sort his allotment out and Lee, well... not sure what he does in the summer.

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In this week's episode, Pete, Miles and Lee review the defeat against Saracens at Ashton Gate. Despite a good start the Bears ultimately lost control of the game in the face of an incredibly experienced, focused and effective opposition who delivered a classic 'been there, seen that and worn the T-shirt' sort of performance led by the mercurial Owen Farrell. Fair play to the them. They did a job, played some decent rugby and got the result they needed. No real complaints from us.

We then look forward to our BBTG away day trip on the coach to Quins. With both teams realistically needing a bonus-point win to have a chance of the fourth play-off berth you can be sure that the ball will be flying about all over the Stoop. Is this our chance to deliver a 'Quins-tanbul' performance? As our friend Binnsy once said, 'win or lose, hit the booze' and we'll be sure to do that as best we can.

Finally, we run through the list of leavers and wish the four centurions  in Callum Sheedy, Dan Thomas, Ed Holmes and Piers O'Connor well.

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This week we pick over the carcass that was the massacre in BS3 and we’re not talking about the hammering of Falcons at Ashton Gate last weekend. 

No, we’re talking about the first ever live pod at the Bristol Beer Factory Taproom. We look back on an evening of structured chaos, discuss the learnings and then move quickly on to more pressing matters such as the fantastic victory yesterday away at Welford Road that keeps play off hopes firmly in our own hands.

19- zip down on 69 minutes and we’re looking down the barrel but shots fired from the bench, and in particular from Max Lahiff and the returning Harry Thacker, and a yellow card to Mike Brown and we haul it back from the brink with a last gasp try and conversion to make it 21-19. It’s fair to say the home crowd didn’t take to that too well but boo hoo, that’s life baby!

We talk about the game with help from some selected short sharp summaries and then look forward to the final two games in the run-ins. Do we dare to believe? Spoiler alert. We do!

Bristol Bears Women were also in action on Sunday in the Allianz Cup final at Shaftesbury Party and despite leading at half time, were eventually defeated by a strong Saracens side. We have a quick chat about that and their hopes for the run- in and then finally we run though a bit more ‘Bris-ness’ from the week, including some contract news, the Supporters Q&A at the HPC and introduce a new feature - ‘news from the media’ as we notched a flurry of Bears-related articles in the press this week. It’s great that everyone loves the Bears again after years of media hibernation and just shows where running, offloading and try-scoring can get you….

Join Pete, Lee and Miles as they have a cheeky beer and a bit of rugby banter…

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It's a carnival atmosphere down at the Bristol Beer Factory Taproom this week as having constantly 'talked about' doing a live pod the lads actually execute one straight after the 13-try massacre of Newcastle Falcons at Ashton Gate.

It's raw and it's raucous but the lads try their best to analyse the game despite 10% off the beers and 50% of the champagne.

They also look towards Tigers and beyond and dare to believe. Back in the top four from no-where. Can we? You bet we can... 

We also discuss a re-signing, a departure and a rumour as well as responding to listener questions. 

And then before you know it's over.

Thanks to all of you who tuned up to support us and also to our tech genius Paul Wyatt who kept the whole thing going. Maybe we'll do one again sometime.

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In this week's episode we formally announce our first ever live pod, in the sense that we are inviting an audience to the Bristol Beer Factory Taproom post Falcons at 6.30pm next Sunday.

If you are interested in finding out more, and even contemplating joining us, then complete the Eventbrite registration below (it's free but it helps us get an idea of numbers) as well as the Google form where you can submit a question in advance and provide us with answers to a few short questions about the season.

Click HERE to register your interest..

Click HERE for the Google form to submit a questions and answer a couple of questions about the season...

We also discuss the season card renewal announcement which rewarded fans with a minimal increase but also ruffled a few feathers on account of the plan to shift people out of three sections of the South Stand to  make way for yet another new Family Area. We try to take a balanced view as best we can.

We also discuss a contract extension and a new signing as well as speculate on players past and present in a somewhat whimsical manner.

Finally Miles and Pete briefly review the Bears Women victory over Glos-Hartbury in the Allianz Cup semi final and before we finally remember to preview the Falcons game, but very quickly as we haven't got an awful lot to say.

Up the Bears!

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You’re listening to Bears Beyond the Gate, a Bristol Bears podcast made by fans for fans. We’re two and a half season cardholders at Ashton Gate who love the club, the game and all things Bears.

Well, Miles is happy as Pat listens to his selection advice from the ski slopes of France and moves Max to full back, Noah Howard to the wing and gives Gengey the starting berth at loosehead.

And it works, as Bristol retain the Rifles Cup by winning at Kingsholm for only the third time since 2006.It’s an enjoyable game of rugby for both sets of fans and the 33-24 victory means that Bristol move up to a lofty 5th position thanks to Sale hammering Exeter yesterday. 

That’s 12 tries and 85 point for the Bears since the restart and with Newcastle up next in three weeks are we now officially the wild card team that might sneak into the play offs? 

We reinstate listeners’ short, sharp summaries, hear from a new roving reporter and take a bow to man of the match Benard Janse Van Rensburg by listening to his glorious post match interview in full before adding our thoughts on the game.

Join Pete, Miles and Lee for a cheeky coffee and a bit of early morning banter…

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