Weekly Round Up 12th Sept 09

Team	Opposition	H/A	Result	Competition
1st	Dover	A	Lost 41-0	London 1 South
2nd (Mustangs)	Westcombe Pk III	H	Lost 12-48	Invicta League I
3rd	Dartfordians II	A	Lost 13-10	Friendly
4th	Footscray II	A	Lost 47-0	Friendly warm-up
5th	Westcombe Pk Gents	A	Lost 35-33	Friendly warm-up
Vets

An unusually bad set of results to report on this week but it was a very poor week for player availability, compounded by a disappointing number of drop-outs across the 5 teams. Fortunately, for the 3rds,4ths and 5ths, they were only playing friendlies but the 1st team and Mustangs were not so fortunate in this respect.

It was partly the fact that the 3rds had been scheduled to go to Llanishen that gave rise to the poor availability situation but the very positive thing one can say about the week-end is that as a club, we fulfilled our five fixtures and gave every-one a run-out, when it would have been much easier to shelve the 3rds this week and distribute their players amongst the other teams. Many thanks to all the players who stepped in to fill gaps, swapped teams at the last minute or played out of position to aid the cause.

With 5 league fixtures to play next week though, we need all hands on deck to ensure we can compete across the board but already, I’m pleased to say, there appears to be good availability and strong competition for places.
The Firsts were always facing a tough fixture at Dover, but with 9 changes from the week before, the fact that they averted a cricket score defeat gives them great credit. It was good to welcome Tom Castle back to the First Team after his absence in New Zealand. Tom was one of the outstanding talents in the U18 squad of 2 years ago and departs for Uni this month, but we look forward to seeing him back here during the breaks. The game also marked a strong 1st Team debut for Billy Chrystal at open-side flanker, whilst John O’Brien had a stormer at prop in what was generally a very decent performance from the forwards in the tight, against a pack that had given Gravesend all sorts of problems the week before.

The Mustangs pulled up 4 players from the 3rds but still had only a bare 15 and with players out of position all over the place suffered the inevitable consequence – especially once Mark Thurgood was forced off through injury. Tom McCulkin had an outstanding game at full-back though, whilst George Coomber was unlucky to break a toe, which will keep him out for 6 weeks.

The 3rds set off for Dartfordians with 1 less than a full team and an injured non-playing skipper, who was nevertheless forced into action to play scrum-half when necessity called. A player was kindly lent to them by Dartfordians, who then unfortunately let in the match-winning try. Ho Hum. Better luck next week for the 3rds, hopefully, when they return to League action with a full team.

The 4ths took a variety of players to Footscray, where a lack of cohesion and match practice made them easy prey to the very quick Footscray three-quarters. The outstanding performance for Maidstone came from new skipper Mark Staples, playing at Fly-Half for the 1st time and who deserved a better return from his strong-running,tackling and leader-ship. Most encouraging aspects of the day were the debuts of Damian McCardle and Chris Hogg, who join us from Tunbridge Wells and Cranbrook respectively and look like being very useful additions to the club.

I have seen around 3 different score-lines for the 5th team at Westcombe Park, where despite losing, the guys seem to have enjoyed a thrilling, end to end contest against well matched opposition. Apparently, there were 5 tries scored apiece, with Steve Quinn recording a score of 35-33, rather than the Westcombe Pk version as recorded above. Tries came from Mark Burrill, Ben Foskett,Richard Nunn, Brian Costello and Scott Andrews, who performed well at fly-half outside debutant scrum-half Lance Lewis.

Next week is the last Saturday before we take over the club-house from the Mote for the rugby season. Please bear with us if you are waiting to buy kit, as its all still in store until Sat 26th September – on which date incidentally there will be a karaoke and early-season party night. No charge for entry.

Speaking of social events, for anyone who enjoyed watching Derren Brown predict the lottery numbers last week (apparently), I foresee a further great opportunity to delve into the mysteries of the human mind on the 24th October, when we will be treated to an evening of mind-games and hypnotism from the Colin Adamson Hypnosis Experience www.colinadamson.com Tickets for the show are limited to 100 and in true EasyJet fashion, the first 50 will be sold at £7/pair whereas the next 50 tickets will be sold at £5 each. Here’s your chance to treat your loved one to a great evening’s entertainment, for less than the price of one cinema ticket. If you haven’t got a loved one, why not treat someone else’s instead. Tickets will be on sale at the bar from Thursday evening (17th Sept).

Lastly, apologies for the lateness of the round-up this week, especially to our reader(s) in India, one of whom was complaining by 11am last Monday morning when the round-up hadn’t yet appeared. Its either the time difference or he must be feeling homesick, poor old Charlie.
RE

Fixtures for 16th Sept.

Team	Opposition	H/A	Result	Competition
1st	Tunbridge Wells	H		London 1 South
2nd (Mustangs)	Gravesend II	A		Invicta League I
3rd	Folkestone II	H		Invicta League II
4th	Weavering	H		Mid Kent A
5th	Gillingham Anch III	A		Mid Kent C
Vets	Still limbering up

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