Maidstone 4’s 29 - Tonbridge Judds 4’s 0

The weather was forecast to be bright and warm,the reality was a dark showery day but still better than the previous weeks dire conditions.TJs arrived (having garnered the scalps of both Weavering &E Peckham the two teams hot in pursuit of Maidstone in the league) wearing red hooped shirts which led to the poor referee having to confer the title “whites” to Maidstone owing to a wider band with.The only point conceded that afternoon.

The 4’s fielding a side reinforced by the “too young” elements of the third team took the field for some pre-match drills under the guidance of U12 coach Mark Fish who whipped the line out into shape (during the match judds opted for a scrum rather than kick for touch from a penalty).

TJs kicked off into the waiting arms of the redoubt Mr Fish who promptly headed off in the direction of  the Judd’s half  the ball having such a natural affinity for said half. It took some ten to fifteen minutes of pressure from the 4’s until  Craig Bowden found Alan McCabe with a swift pass off the back of a ruck , Alan dummied a pass to the ever eager Ben McKellar and carved his way through a static TJs back line to touch down the first of Maidstone’s tries. Unfortunately his conversion attempt fell just short.

Once more Tjs kicked off this time deeper to be caught by this seasons star novice Tom Harvey  who promptly dodged a couple of on rushing Tjs and cleared the ball up field pursuing the kick and wining a line out deep in TJ’s half .More pressure ensued culminating in that man Fish hurling himself over the line to score the second try ,which was duly converted.

As you can surmise the ball travelled back downfield from the kick off a bit more see saw play ending in Maidstone conceding a scrum in TJ’s 22 from the scrum TJs won the ball only for the fly half to be pounced on by the ever present Jack Budgeon who won the ball and gave a great pop pass to the author(me) who just had to skip over the line to score which once again was converted .Thus ended the first half 19-0.

The Second half played out in  similar fashion to the first with TJs rarely getting beyond the halfway line the backs as well as the forwards tackling &rucking out the TJs best efforts  to gain territory. Mark Staples came on in the second half to join his rampaging brother Andy in the backrow , Dave Jackson going off and the irrepressible Mark Fish taking up the reins as skipper . Tom Harvey managed to bag two try’s this half his second a fantastic solo affair dribbling the ball 60m up field with TJs in hot pursuit neither try being converted.

All this action was cheered on by quite a crowd for the 4’s including Ben Jones,Tom Clarke & Darren Banfield all sidelined through injury ,Gretchen Bowden and Bob Hayton masquerading as a cowboy on the touchline.

Apologies for any inaccuracies , or omissions the author had other things on his mind for most of the game.

DJackson

Tries scorers ;Alan McCabe,2 cons

                         Mark Fish

                         Dave Jackson

                         Tom Harvey