27th&28th Feb

Weekly Roundup 27th/28th Feb 2010

RESULTS for 27th/28th Feb

Team	Opposition	H/A		Competition
1st	no fixture			London 1 South
2nd (Mustangs)	no fixture			Invicta Division I
3rd (Evergreen team)	Charlton Park over 35	H	Won 17-7	Evergreen Cup Qtr Final
4th	Lordswood II	H	Lost 18-40	Mid Kent A
5th	Lordswood III	A	Lost 27-5	Mid Kent C
Vets	Ton Judds VI	H	Lost 8-10	Friendly

No game for the 1sts or Mustangs this week, although Andy Bacon looked pretty pleased with himself when he returned to the club-house, having played in a winning team for only the 3rd time this season, this time for Maidenhead 3rd team against Oxford Harlequins. Some people will go to the ends of the earth to win a match!! ( The other two wins were for Maidstone vs Aylesford and for Aylesford President's XV vs The Army, just in case anyone's interested)

Congratulations to Paul Massey's Evergreen Cup squad for progressing to their 3rd succesive Cup Semi-Final after a hard fought but slightly less than convincing win over a somewhat depleted Charlton Park Veterans outfit, who were keen to postpone owing to injuries but who pitched up to play the fixture regardless and put up a dogged fight in adversity. Of course, the torrential rain in the 18 hours prior to kick-off did nothing to aid the free-flowing open style of rugby to which both teams naturally aspired but when it came to a war of attrition, our guys showed that they could dog it out with the best of them. In fact, dogging is probably what they do best.

No such victories for the 4ths, 5ths or Vets on saturday.

The 4ths scored their first points since the 18 they scored against Weavering at the beginning of January and after having shipped quite a few during the game it was good to finish with a John Broadley solo try, converted from wide out by Euan Caborn playing his last match before AS Level revision kicks in in earnest. For Lordswood II, it was their fly-half who did most of the damage, being that unpalatable combination of solidly-built, slippery and bloody quick, although he was aided and abetted by some pretty feeble tackling.

In contrast with the previous week when they played really well and lost, this week the 5ths played really badly and lost - but they werent helped by a lack of numbers on the day which saw them kick off with 14. If a few more players actually bothered to answer Quinny's texts instead of keeping him guessing till saturday, he would stand a better chance of getting a team together every week consisting of the requisite 18 players, rather than 22 one week and 14 the next.

The Vets picked up an exchange fixture against a Tonbridge 6th team that included a 71 year old full-back and had a really enjoyable fixture which would have culminated in a richly deserved win had not last week's champagne-winning man-of-the-match Glyn Richards not decided to go on an abortive solo run from a penalty under the posts in the dying minutes, when 3 points would have won Maidstone the Match. From hero to Villain in the space of 8 days !! How the mighty fall (but not so far and hard as he will when he goes on the Vets ski-tour next week, never ever having put on a pair of skis before) Incidentally, I noticed that the Tonbridge Team included a fairly useful hooker with an attempted mohican, who played against us 3 weeks ago for TJ 3rds, two weeks ago for TJ 4ths and this week for TJ 6ths. At the rate his rugby career is progressing, he will surely end up in their under-12s by the end of the season.

Phantom Foot Fetishist

Over the course of the last few weeks, there have been various reports about a persistent individual who wanted to set up a link with the club so that he could practice foot massage on the players. (Anything's got to be worth a try in our current predicament) Whilst most of the reports came from 5th team skipper Steve Quinn, I gather that Paul Massey also received a few calls before his patience wore thin and he resorted to the Bristolian for "get lost" - which seemed to do the trick.

I then received this plantive email last week from Steve Quinn:

Hi Richard.
I think you ought to be aware of this situation.
Over the last few months I have been plagued by Chris the foot masseuse who claims he's studying at Mid Kent College in Maidstone.
Originally I welcomed the idea and invited him to the club to offer his services but he didn't turn up.
After a short spell without any texts or calls from him I recieved a message last night asking that I call him to discuss his "foot fetish."
He is now requesting other details to contact me such as Facebook details.
I don't know whether this person is serious or not so I called the Mid Kent College at Maidstone.
They don't know who he is and don't offer a dedicated foot treatment course at any of their colleges.
He seems a little suspicous to me.

Thanks.

Steve.

Well, I can now confirm that Steve's suspicions were well grounded, having received a "number-withheld" call myself on saturday afternoon from someone wishing to come to the club and have a good sniff of my size 12s. Its either an amazing co-incidence or its got to be the same bloke. Now, personally, I'm open-minded about the whole thing and provided he doesnt chip my toe-nail varnish, why should I care if he gets an illicit whiff or two. I like to think that we're a socially inclusive club .

Fixtures for 6th March

Team	Opposition	H/A		Competition
1st	TBC		Sat 3pm
2nd (Mustangs)	Beckenham II	A	Sat 3pm	Invicta I
3rd	Sidcup III	H	Sat 3pm	Invicta II
4th	Old Gravesendians II	A	Sat 3pm	Mid Kent A
5th	Old Gravesendians III	H	Sat 3pm	Mid Kent C
Vets (over 45s)	Sevenoaks 0ver 45s	A	Sat 3pm	Friendly