The Bournemouth Raiders finished 2nd in the 11 team Beach Bowl III tournament at Eastleigh on Sunday.Having won their group with convincing victories over Birmingham Raiders (21-6) and the Sussex Thunder (18-6), they joined the other two group winners (Southampton Stags and the Leicester Eagles) in the Championship Pool.

A devastating 19-0 win over the Stags, set them up with a clash with their arch rivals, the Leicester Eagles. Tim Smith's early TD put the Raiders 6-0, but a failure to punch the ball in from a 1st and goal from the Eagles 5 proved costly, as the Eagles hit back with a TD and a PAT on their next drive to win the game. The Raiders finished the 2003 season in 4th place out of 10 teams in the final BSFL 5-on-5 league table.

Mark Elliott and Rich Cleveland ran the Bournemouth Deckchairs side that also took part. All players enjoyed themselves, but unfortunately they didn't manage to win any games in a tough schedule against good opponents. John Parsons ran in their solitary TD on a reverse.

Deckchairs results: Deckchairs 0-26 The Knights, Deckchairs 0-18 Team Extreme, Deckchairs 6-21 Sundevils A, Deckchairs 0-26 Derby Dream Team

Raiders squad: Matt Heasman, Tim Smith, Abdul Lawal, Nick Michael, Luke Foster, Bob Kalman, Vincent Gurrea, Mike Drobny

Deckchairs squad: Mark Elliott, Rich Cleveland, John Parsons, Lewis Thomas, Barnaby Kerr, Bene Lewis, Alan Huddy, Matt Hemsley

The Raiders will now take a break before competing again in 2004. New game shirts are being ordered, the North v South game takes place in March and then the first 5-on-5 tournament of the year looks set to take place in Birmingham in April.