Welcome back to another new season at Maidstone Rugby, the 129th by my reckoning, although only a few of the current Veterans have played in every one of those seasons (or so you would think if you had seen some of us yesterday).

Congratulations first of all to The Mote cricket club, who yesterday achieved their long-awaited return to the Premier League of Kent cricket where they rightly belong. It can only be in the interests of everyone who cares about sport in Maidstone to have 2 strong and healthy sports-clubs playing out of the Mote, so well done to Laurence, Glen, Tom and all the other cricketing guys for a great achievement.

Having counted over 80 players at training on Thursday night and around 50 on Tuesday, there is clearly plenty of enthusiasm to take into the new season. Unfortunately, enthusiasm alone was not enough to take our 1st team past their first hurdle in the league programme, namely Old Elthamians, who were promoted unbeaten last year and whose team sheet read like a Springboks XV. However, in comparing our playing resources with ourselves this time a year ago, there is no comparison and it will certainly not be all one-way traffic in the league this season. Talking of playing resources, it was  pleasing to note that James Dance scored a try on his 1st Team debut at fly-half, whilst also welcoming Peter Horne to the Club and welcoming the return of Josh Pankhurst, Rob Jeffrey,Harry Stockford and Damian Houlihan, who are all sure to have a major impact on the playing fortunes of the 1st Team. Commiserations to the Elthamians fly-half, who suffered a very nasty broken wrist whilst scoring the last try of the day.

A very credible looking but ring-rusty Mustangs outfit took to the field at Ashford to take on the Ashford 1st team in a trial match in front of a large crowd who were there for the Vets tournament and beer festival. Whilst looking very dangerous in spells, a lack of match practice saw passes being dropped or being judged forward in scoring positions, whereas Ashford took their opportunities well, aided perhaps by some lapses in the Mustangs defence.  In a typically robust encounter that provided enough physicality to satisfy even Sam Bailey, the players that particularly caught the eye for Maidstone were Matt Iles at No 8, whose ball handling and running were excellent throughout, and also Patric Halforty in the back-row, making a welcome return to the club. Sadly, Josh Mckenzie left the field with a fractured shoulder and will be out of action for some time – which is bad news for the U18s.

The Third Team, under the tender loving guidance of skipper Paul Massey, kicked off their Invicta League II campaign in the unfamiliar territory of St Dunstans college. The 3rds have approached their season with some trepidation after winning promotion last season, knowing that they have to face the likes of Tunbridge Wells II,Thanet II, Aylesford II and Dunstonians II but on this showing, they will still be a force to be reckoned with. As a concession to the new challenges, there were 3 or 4 players in the team that were under 40, as opposed to just Mike Hill. In fact this seems to have paid off, as Alan McCabe got 2 tries whilst playing outside the battering ram of Darren Banfield whilst 17 year old flanker Karl Smissen was instrumental in most of the Maidstone scores.

I gather that the annual 3rd team trip to Llanishen is not taking place next week, so they will be looking for something suitable on the fixture exchange instead.

The Vets pitched up at Ashford with a squad of around 18 but minus their new-skipper Steve Vincent, who has been seriously unwell this week and minus any of the 3rd team players who turned out last year eg Tuggy, Banners, Eugene. However, the stalwarts who were there, were determined to make a go of it and looked pretty impressive at times. Early losses to Anchorians and Colfeians were followed by wins against Tunbridge Wells and Shooters Hill. This brought the bad news of an appearance in the plate semi, rather than a trip to the real-ale tent. The semi-final was duly won against a depleted but battling Lordswood team, before losing the plate final to a Medway break-away try. Hero of the day for Maidstone was a visiting South African “in-law” who hadn’t played for 15 years but who got 2 match-winning tries. The reward for his endeavours is that he can’t walk today and needs a week to recover.

Next week, we have 5 teams out as we build up towards full strength for the 26th September, by which time we will be fielding all six teams and will be back in possession of the club house, with a party and karaoke night to get the social-season off to a good start.

Fixtures for 16th Sept. 

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