Weekly News Round-up 9th Jan 2006
The New Year started well for Maidstone, with a valuable 20-5 win for The 1st Team away to Sidcup (see match report) and all six senior sides in action for the first time since 29th October.
The interesting thing about that is that in all but one of the last eight weeks, we have selected 6 sides but have been let down by late cry-offs from various opponents, so despite our best endeavours, its frustrating that it is not always possible to provide matches for all our teams.
The Mustangs played Old Dunstonians II at home in the Invicta League. I caught the last few minutes of the game which was just long enough to see O Ds score a try to bring the score to 10-12. They then converted from wide out to level the scores at 12-12 and deny the Mustangs a valuable League win against the third placed side. It must have been deeply frustrating for the players, for the Mustangs coach Andy Golding and for skipper James Ferris who was away with the 1sts at Sidcup.
The A Team took on Gillingham Anchorians II at The Mote and produced another convincing display to post a score of 36 – 5 in the League.
The Extra A with new skipper Tony Lee in charge for the first time played Anchorians 4ths in the League and emerged with a 45 – 0 league victory. Anchorians did well to get a team out bearing in mind that they had lost 8 players since the previous day but they were never going to be strong enough to cope with the fire-power that the 4ths could muster, with Matt Hayton scoring 2 solo tries in the first 15 minutes. A certain Matt Plowman featured in the back-row and showed some promise. If he trains hard and works at his game, he could eventually make it into the 3rd team perhaps.
Meanwhile, The B hosted Leigh up at the Mote Leisure Centre as Leigh village green was deemed to be unplayable. The B Team hospitality extended far enough to provide Leigh with their first ever League win but, since they were a good bunch of blokes who thoroughly deserved the win, no one could begrudge them their hard fought victory at Maidstone.
The Vets travelled to Ashford to play Ashford 4 in what was something of a foregone conclusion having beaten Ashford 3 quite convincingly in recent weeks. However, Ashford stuck at it and gave a better account of themselves than the 40 odd point margin of victory would suggest. Iconic skipper, Glyn Richards, was injured in the process of scoring a try (he should know better) and having popped a rib there were tears in his eyes as he tried to sink the odd pint (medicinal purposes) back in the bar at Maidstone afterwards. Surely he wont be able to lead his troops onto the field next week with such a painful injury – but if he misses, will he ever be able to regain his place in the back-row? The pressures of captaining a winning team with 25 regular players!! It’s Sevenoaks Acorns next week in a re-arranged fixture, so all hands needed on deck for what should be the match of the season.
The Firsts have got Lordswood at the Mote in the Kent Cup next week (2PM start) and the Mustangs are in League action at Sevenoaks. Plenty of support required at home for the Firsts please.
Final word of the week is about catering. If you have noticed the excellent standard of cuisine in the club in recent weeks, please make sure that you support it with your custom and that you express your appreciation to those providing it. That way, they might be more inclined to go on expending their time and effort on our behalf in what can be a thankless task.
RE