Weekly News Round-Up 12th March 2006

Not the best week of the year on the playing front, with only the Vets and the 3rds producing wins but still plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

The Firsts  lost 13-34 away to Sutton & Epsom after having beaten them at The Mote in the early part of the season. This leaves Maidstone 6^th from bottom in a very tight mid-table with 3 games to go, but now safe from the threat of ending up in the bottom three, if my maths serves me correctly.

The Mustangs had no game this week, which was just as well really as so many players were away in Paris for the weekend.

The A Team were confronted by what appeared to be an enormous Sevenoaks 3^rd team, containing no less than 8 South Africans, but Maidstone were still good enough to win this League Match 29 – 7. This means that Maidstone III have now won this League for a 5^th time in the 8 years that the competition has been staged. Congratulations to Mike Laurenson and his “Dreamy Boys”.  Lets hope that they have enough life left in them to repeat the feat again next year as well as making a big impact on the Evergreen Cup if we are able to secure a place for the first time next season. (The competition for next year is full at the moment but it is apparently quite common for sides to drop out during the summer).

The Extra A confronted Weavering in a must-win League game to make sure of the runners up spot in League C. Hit by around 5 or 6 changes in the club-house before the game started, the day was saved by Steve Norton agreeing to forfeit a half match in The Vets in order to prop for the 4s, and by Simon Cripps and Ian Davis showing up in the Club-house looking for a game. The team was also supplemented by the introduction of 3 players from this year’s U17 squad, who gave a good account of themselves in their first match of Senior Rugby (once they got used to the slower pace)  However, none of this was good enough to match a well-drilled Weavering side that ran hard and took advantage of weak tackling from Maidstone to run-up an embarrassingly high score. Maidstone’s only try came from Nick Gill who played his first game of rugby last week and scored his first try this week. At this rate of progress, its anyone’s guess what he will achieve next week !!

The B came close to ending their losing sequence in a well contested Division D match against Sevenoaks 5 but ended up on the wrong side of a 21-15 score line. Afterwards,Trevor B was partially consoled by being able to watch the second half of Ireland’s fine win against Scotland. (Apparently, Trevor is Irish, although you would never guess it)

The Vets found themselves without a fixture after Gravesend Moles found themselves otherwise engaged.  They agreed instead, to take on a combined Sheppey 2/3 down at the Ditch and prevailed magnificently, 12 points to 5 – and that’s all I’ve heard from Vets HQ.

Next week, The 1s have a rest, The Mustangs visit Charlton Park, The A take on Medway 1sts and the B disappear on a day trip to Uckfield as guests of the Uckfield President, to play Uckfield III, (taking half of the Extra A with them for the ride.) (It remains to be seen if there are enough spare players not going to Uckfield to get a 4^th team out)  This leaves the Vets as the only side at home, entertaining Canterbury 4 for the second time this year.  However, everything is subject to change as not all fixtures have yet been confirmed.

After what happened to the 4^th team this week, it seems appropriate to have a quick word about “no-shows”.  Its about the worst thing a player can do to a skipper and his team-mates and its particularly inexcusable to do it without even having the courtesy to phone. All players encounter unforeseen problems from time to time and are forced to cry off, but any player who makes a habit of failing to show without warning, just cannot be considered for selection: he is simply no use to the team. Fortunately, such occurrences are few and far between.

On a brighter note, get your diaries out for a couple of important events.

Maidstone U16s are playing the County Cup Final at Aylesford on Sunday 26^th March. This Maidstone team is one of the finest sides in the country in their age group and with one of the best playing records at any level, so if you want to see some scintillating rugby, get along and give them some support. And it’s not even far to go.

On a different theme, there will be an end of season Club Party on Friday 7^th April in the club-house, starting at 7:30 and going on till late.  Headlining the evening will be music from the legendary “Menin Shortz”, making their first appearance at The Mote – or nearly anywhere in fact.  This band are so exclusive that only a couple of hundred people have ever seen them play, but their first couple of gigs were so well received that they are already attracting a large following of groupies and fans. Demand for tickets is sure to be high and tickets are limited to 100, so at only £5 a head with an exotic curry thrown in, it would be sensible to buy your tickets early when they go on sale at the bar this week, to make sure that they don’t all get snaffled by the rent-a-crowd minor celebrities who follow this band everywhere. 

We are still in the process of booking a support act – eg comedian or novelty act, but other highlights of the evening will be an audience with Matt Plowman, where Matt will be reminiscing about his time in the First Team and answering questions about the difficulty of marketing himself to personal sponsors as a 3^rd team flanker. Jon Sargent is going to entertain us with a blow by blow history of his most memorable career-threatening injuries entitled “The Day I Broke My Neck But Carried On Playing”. Jim Walker is talking about organizing a party game called “Has Anyone Seen Our Social Sec”, (although  we can’t be sure if he will have time as he’s still bogged down in the plans for last year’s New Year’s Eve Club Party) and lastly, Tony Dray is going to make an announcement explaining why we don’t get oranges at half time anymore and on a more personal level, where all the pies have gone and indeed, who ate them.

Parents of players in the junior section of the club are particularly welcome to come along and participate in this club event, so don’t be backward in coming forward.  More details and highlights to follow next week.  

RE

STOP PRESS.  The 3rds are now playing a friendly at home to Anchorians II on Saturday, in their 4^th encounter of the season.  Kick off is at 2:30 to accommodate the England v Ireland game which kicks off at 5:30 and will be shown live in the club-house.