Weekly News Round Up  27th Feb 2006

A brief summary this week, partly so as not to intrude too far into private grief since only the Mustangs had a win to report. This might partly be explained by the fact that many of the clubs that were no longer in the cup had no 1^st team fixtures and were consequently able to strengthen their lower teams. 

The Firsts went down to Blackheath in the Kent Cup quarter final by 17 points to 20, with Blackheath kicking the winning 3 points with the last kick of the game. Whilst a narrow loss of that nature is bound to leave a sense of disappointment, the Blackheath 2^nd  string were probably around the standard of a London 1 first team and Maidstone did very well to run them that close. In soccer parlance, Maidstone can now concentrate on the League and forget about the glamour of the cup.

The Mustangs  recorded the only win of the week, beating Old Colfes III in the Invicta League by a convincing margin of 34-5. It will need to be even more convincing this coming week, when The Mustangs take on unbeaten Invicta League leaders, Beckenham II.

Meanwhile, a much weakened A Team recorded their 3^rd league defeat out of the last 4 games, going down 17-5 to a powerful Cranbrook II. The A team must hope to return to winning ways next week in their quest to wrap up the Mid Kent A title.

A shortage of players at selection on Wednesday led to the immediate cancellation of the Extra A friendly against Gravesend 4. This was only the second time this season that we have been forced to cancel a scheduled fixture (out of 125 odd) owing to a lack of players, and it is vital that players continue to make themselves available over the last 7 weeks of what has been a great season.

The previous cancellation had been our B Team against Tunbridge Wells 4s before Christmas, which was one reason why we wanted to make sure that we honoured the corresponding fixture this week.  In the event, the game went ahead with Tunbridge Wells running out 86-0 winners.  A quick look at the Wells web-site shows them claiming victory against our 4s (when in fact it was our 5s) and it also reveals the faces of a number of their 2^nd and even 1^st team players who had been drafted into the 4s for the week as they had no fixtures of their own.  Not quite cricket somehow.

I predicted last week that The Vets would get a win at Medway III, despite the fact that Medway are unbeaten at the top of League C, that they beat Maidstone IV by 4 tries to 1 last week and that they had already beaten The Vets in the early part of the season. Until midway through the second half, with the score at 0 – 0, I still fancied our chances but then a fly-hack and chase let Medway in for 7 points and then another fly-hack and chase just before the end of an unbelievably short second half allowed them to win 14-5.  Frustrating but never mind, we’ll have them next year.

Next week (4^th March) we have 6 fixtures, 5 of them scheduled for home as a result of the Vets hosting Jersey Vets who are making a long week-end of it to support their First Team. Most of the matches will be kicking off at 3pm, but the first team game kicks off at 2:15 to enable Jersey I to get their return flight in time. There will need to be at least one staggered Kick Off, so keep an eye on the team selections page.   Stop Press:

Jersey Vets have cried off, so probably only 4 games at home.

Major event on Sunday is the Kent U16s Festival at Maidstone, for which volunteers are still required to help make a success of this enormous undertaking. The Veterans XV have agreed to man the car-parks and many other volunteers have come forward but many of the youth section are involved in festivals elsewhere and cannot be there to help, so any spare hands will be welcomed. Make contact with our marvellous Youth Chair-Person, Wendy Pound, on [email protected] to pledge your assistance.  Good luck meanwhile, to the Under 18s who will be contesting the Kent League Final at Canterbury on the same day.

Major event on Friday night is Terry Lea’s farewell fancy dress party at The Bull at East Farleigh, before he sets off for Thailand and all points East. Many of the 4^th team and the Lea entourage are sure to be there, preparing for their League Game against Aylesford on Saturday, so don’t miss out on this splendid team event. There is talk of going direct from The Bull to Aylesford on Saturday but I’m sure that its just bravado.??

Saturday’s match programme reproduced below.

RE

Cover Info

Maidstone

v

Blackheath

25^th February 2006

KO. 2.00pm

Kent Cup Quarter Final

MAIDSTONE                                                            BLACKHEATH

(Red, White & Black Hoops)                               (Black with Red Collar)

Tim Porter                                              15                    Johnnie Boyle
(BioMedical Business Partners)                            

Eugene Moore                                       14                    Dan Jones

(Island Sports)

Neil Graves                                            13                    Sean Moan

Martin Arnold                                         12                    Dave Foxwell
(College Road Dental Surgery)

Mark Ryan                                              11                    Prince Moyo
(Howarth, Clark & Whitehill)

Dave Charlton                                       10                    David Whitehead

Craig Whitehead                                    9                     Nick Maurer

(Island Sports)
 

Scott McIlroy                                           1                     Steve Pope
(Simon Wright Homes)

Tom Rogers                                            2                    Tom Stansfield

(Mercantile Consultancy Services/ Glosrose)

Simon Hollister                                       3                    Nick Winwood

Sam Johnston                                        4                    Mark Colgate

Dan Cummings                                      5                    Will Thorpe

Jon Sargent (capt)                                 6                    James Bull

(Island Sports)

Nick Sargent                                          7                    Tom Lawy

(NS Computing)

Ben Court                                               8                     A.N. Other

(Handf Finance)

Rob Jeffrey                                           16                    Sean Wiltshire

Cameron Anning                                  17                    Jim Roques

James Ferris                                        18                    George Georgia

Players Sponsor Name in Brackets

REFEREE:          Michael Maple (Kent Soc)

Touch Judges: Andy Jordan (Kent Soc)

      Barry Monk (Kent Soc)

If you are interested in Sponsoring any player in the 1^st team squad, please see Jon Sargent.

Introduction

Blackheath Football Club has a unique place in the history of Rugby Football being the oldest open rugby club in the world. It was formed by Old Boys of Blackheath Proprietary School in 1858, and is now simply known as The Club, a name that has stuck from cheering ‘Up Club’ by their supporters in matches against the school.

A founder member of the Rugby Union, instigators of the first international match, and hosts for the first ever match against Wales in England, Blackheath was home for several international matches pre Twickenham. The Club still boasts of having more international players than any other club. Its members formed the Barbarians, the Army RFU and the London Referees Society.

Now back playing in National Division 2, and the leading club in Kent by some way, The Club have for a number of years tended to enter their Second team into the county competition.  While this has meant fewer overall successes in recent seasons, their convincing win over Canterbury in last years competition before they were disqualified for using an illegible player shows their strength.

Captains Comments

Six in a row and up to 4^th.  We’ve had a great start to 2006 and it’s been down to hard work and a bit more consistency.  At the beginning of December we talked about what we had to do to get out of the relegation fight - everyone’s put in the work, played through the pain and put those words into action.

We’ve been lucky that while the size of the squad has been stretched with a large list of unavailabilities, the team has stayed pretty consistent since Christmas.  The pairing of Neil Graves in the centre with Marty has given us an extra attacking edge, and with Tim Porter back and looking sharp and Mark Ryan rediscovering the scoring habit, we’ve been taking advantage of the opportunities we’ve created.  It was a failure to do this before Christmas, combined with some weak defence that put us under pressure.  The fact we have conceded fewer points in the last 6 matches that we did in the 2 games we lost before that, speaks volumes.  

Pilkington Update:  We both started and finished the game at Gosport last week!

‘The Phantom’ Debate:  Amid rumours suggesting that at one point during the Gosport game Sam was seen supporting the outside shoulder of Mark Ryan out on the left wing, a number of team mates have come out in support of the Phantom.  No one who knows Scott McIlroy will be surprised that he made a highly eloquent speech in support of his fellow Kiwi on the bus on the way back from Gosport.  Unfortunately, no one heard it as it was lost amongst the rest of the drivel he was spouting and everyone was still marvelling at his inability to count beyond 3.  To provide another perspective on this hot debate, we phoned Jim Walker.  Jim had this to say:
“The mobile phone you are calling is switched off.  Please try again later”

Enjoy the game!
Jon

Upcoming Social Events

Thursday 13^th April:     Annual Club Dinner & Awards @ The Grangemoor Hotel
Tickets £25 – Contact Jon Sargent

Friday 5^th May:            Spring Ball @ The Ramada Hotel
Tickets £35 – Contact Wendy Pound

Friday 12^th May:          Golf Day @ Bearsted Golf Club
Contact Bob Beney

PLAYER PROFILE

Club Shop

Don’t forget that the following items are available at the Club Shop!

SHIRT          RAIN JACKET                   FLEECE         POLO SHIRT

          TRAINING TOP          DRESS SHIRT             CLUB TIE

Further details are available on the website and orders can also be placed over the bar. 

AVAILABLE NOW!

Limited Edition 125 L3SE League Champions Shirt

Just £25

See Jon Sargent for details or to order one

NEXT WEEK:      1^st XV v JERSEY in London 2 South

K.O.  2.30pm @ the MOTE

11^th MARCH:        3^rd XV v SEVENOAKS 3’s

K.O.  2.30pm @ the MOTE

LONDON 2 SOUTH

Other Results

Mustangs          15 – 14            Aylesford 2’s

Extra A XV       10 – 30            Medway 3’s

B XV                   0 – 30            Crowborough 3’s

Veterans XV    37 – 5              Canterbury Vets