Maidstone RFC :: Staff

Pete Barford

Director of Rugby

Pete has been with the club for 22 years, 13 years of which were spent successfully coaching Youth Rugby with a haul of ten trophies through two separate squads. His first squad winning the Kent Cup four years in a row, completing the Kent Cup and Kent League Cup double in one season after winning the National 'Champions of Champions' Cup the season before. Ten of this squad went on to play for the 1st Team. He took his second squad on as under performing U15s and developed them into a highly competitive outfit in quick time, producing three further 1st Team players.

His playing career started at Old Elysians in North London, where he played for his school's old boys team for three years before moving on to play with a round ball for Lensbury FC in the Southern Amateur League. He then played for Maidstone Vets for a number of years when he joined the club and acquired the nickname Genghis, which has stuck with him ever since.

Pete retired from a successful career in Procurement in 2009. He previously worked for a number of multi-nationals including Shell and Abbott.

George Flatman

Lead Coach

George has been coaching since the age of 14.

He has a degree in sports coaching science as well as a level 2 in rugby and cricket. George was St. Mary’s Men’s Rugby Union President- April 2015-2017, increasing the number of qualified coaches from 11 to 56. George has also worked in conjunction with the RFU & IPF on a variety of projects & acts as a coaching educator at the Bank of England Sports Club within their mini section.

More recently he was a player coach at Thamesians RFC in Twickenham, where he also ran sessions for both the men’s teams and the newly formed women’s team.

Dave Charlton

Backs Coach

Dave Charlton started his playing career along with his brother Sean at Maidstone, playing in the national leagues before heading off to further education. Upon his return, Dave became the 1st XV Captain at the age of 23 and helped the club eventually regain its status after a decline in form during his absence.
A very popular man around the club, Dave continues to turn out for the Evergreen side when he can. Dave also assisted the Mustangs clinch the league title in the 2017/18 season. He also holds Level 2 coaching level badges in Football & Cricket.

Richard Weston

1st XV Manager

Richard rejoins the coaching and support staff after a couple of seasons respite. The bulk of his playing career was confined to school or within HM Forces. He then moved into coaching, producing an extremely successful youth age group within the club before moving on to coach the clubs Mustangs XV for two seasons. in addition he also captained the clubs Veterans XV, On the basis that you can't keep a good man down, he is looking forward to supporting the 1st XV and being involved in the matchday set up again.

Emily Tamsett

Joint Head Physio

Emily is a newly qualified graduate Sports Therapist from the University of Kent. Emily has been with the club for 2 years as a student under the supervision of Gemma and was promoted to take over Head Physio role jointly with her close friend Caroline. Emily also runs the Tuesday night clinic sessions at the club.
Emily was previously a GB Gymnast with many international titles to her name. Emily holds a full First Aid at Work and Pitch side qualification.
Both Emily and Caroline work together for their private business C&E Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation.

Mick Walker

Academy Coach

Mick coached an undefeated Army U21's for 3 years. His highlight was the Combined services U21 game at Twickenham V England Students & internationally against New Zealand.
He was engaged with Wasps when they first came to Kent with their Academy & also coached North Walsham in the National League.
Mick has had a number of notable invites from WRU, including the National Team run outs.
Brecon rugby club also invited Mick to the Australia Master classes hosted by the WRU.
He was also previously appointed by the British Army as the backs coach for the Cyprus Army side.

At MFC, Mick has played and coached with the Veterans side, as well as coaching the Mustangs to the league title in 2018.