08/10/06 - Maidstone 17 Tunbridge Wells 29         

Another week,another team hastily cobbled together after last minute drop outs. That said, the sun shone after 48 hrs of gloom, & with hope and enthusiasm the 4's took the field against a well drilled Tunbridge-Wells side. With no scrum-half available, Charlie Flynn stepped forward to fill the breach and actually made a pretty good fist of his debut in that position.

Fourth team skipper Dave Jackson, who was supposed to be working, turned up in time to play hooker for only the second time and once again, played his socks off for the sake of his team. In fact it was quite a decent looking side with the likes of Darren Yates and Matt Emery turning out for the first time this season and with Chris Francis playing at number 8.

Stones started brightly and pressurised the Wells back-line into a number of errors that eventually led to a penalty under the posts – slotted by Alan McCabe.  Wells then defended well and gradually gained territory through the experienced boot of their fly-half Paul Smart before taking advantage of the Stones unfamiliar line-up to run in 2 fairly soft trys.

As the first half progressed, the 4's dragged themselves back into the game with McCabe enjoying himself in his preferred position of fly-half half, scoring a try & conversion to add to his earlier penalty.  (The fourths will be lucky to hang on to him much longer on the strength of this performance)

Another new face to the fourths this season was winger Ben McKellar, formerly a regular Mustang, who was playing his first game after more than a season out injured. He was a constant threat to a Wells side clinging on to the lead at the end of the half. It was an exhilirating tackle-busting run from McKellar that provided the 4's with their second try, only to have Wells reply soon afterwards with a 3rd try of their own.

The Second half again saw the early departure of Jim Walker & George Coomber to be replaced by Martin Carr & Math Newman. Dan Harris also came on to make his debut for Maidstone and later, Richard Cronin came on and proved a lively addition to the side at flanker. Try as they might however, Maidstone were unable to regain the upper hand despite some more great runs by McCabe and McKellar and some tasty penalty opportunities. It was a sign of things that the game went to uncontested scrums after Steve Goodwin injured his neck, which always leads to a sense of anti-climax.

Tunbridge-Wells made the most of their possession to score again with the game tailing off to a slightly flattering Wells victory, Maidstone having failed to gain an extra league point by finishing within 10 points of their visitors. 

It would be wrong not to mention the referee, Alan Londesborough, who played a huge part in making this an enjoyable and dissent-free match by virtue of his exemplary manner and decision making, with both sides also playing their part in making this a sporting and well mannered contest.

The team will need to have everyone playing in their correct position and to be at the top of their game next week for the visit to last year’s league winner’s Sevenoaks Acorns, in what should be an extremely enjoyable contest.