04 Nov 07

Canterbury Cardinals Invitation XV 5 v 50 Maidstone Veterans.

In a change to their carded fixture, Maidstones Veterans travelled Canterbury to take on a Cardinals Invitation XV as part of a club birthday celebration.  The 50-5 scoreline does not really do the Cardinals justice in a match where the familiarity and teamwork of Maidstone always gave them the upper hand.  Playing up the sloping pitch, good support play and quick hands led to first half tries from Richard Foden, Brian Mckeon, Chris Lindley & Tony O'Mahony.  A solitary response by Canterbury gave Maidstone's Veterans a convincing half time lead.

The second period saw much of the same although Canterbury's forwards appeared to have a more competitive edge, it was Maidstone's ability to utilise possession and strike from deep by moving the ball quickly that was the difference.  Lindley crossed for two further scores to complete his hat trick, McKeon added to his tally with Kevin Bailey completed the scoring.  Maidstone could have had two further scores but both Hayton and Weston embarrassingly mistook a poorly marked 5m line for the tryline. Dave Hughes successfully converted 5 of his 8 attempts for Maidstone to run out convincing winners by 50 points to 5.