8th February 2006 - BRDG Floodlight 10's Festival Beccs U18's attended the inaugural Bromley Rugby Development Groups Floodlight 10s preliminary round at Beckenham RFC on Wednesday night and played some fantastic rugby against Bromley, Old Dunstonians and Beckenham. A number of Beccs players from the U18’s and U17’s Academy sections put in fine performances with the U17 lads raising their game and playing some good rugby against older players. First up and in the first match of the night was Bromley, the pool round favourites, and so it proved to be. Bromley were very quick off the mark, in all aspects and got into their rhythm quickly. Beccs couldn’t quite match them for overall pace and eventually went down 19 – 0. Next up was Old Dunstonians with a much bigger and older side than Beccs, however, they were no match for Beccs overall speed. Beccs denied them ball throughout the game and both Gbemie Fisher and Neil Page skinned them from distance for 3 and 2 tries respectively, and Michael Malynn sprinted in from 75M to finish the scoring with the final play of the match. 6 tries to nil and 5 conversions from Gareth Robinson resulted in a 40 – 0 thumping and the highest score of the night. With Bromley beating Old Dunstonians and Beckenham, and Beckenham beating ODs it meant that Bromley had won the night to top the pool and ODs were bottom. However, there was one more match to play Beccs vs Beckenham in the decider for 2nd and 3rd place and the final game of the night proved to be the best and most entertaining of the evening. Both teams were up for it and it was patently obvious that both sides desperately wanted to win. With a number of the lads going to the same schools, pride and bragging rights added to expectations and desire. Beckenham kicked off and quickly gained territorial ground in Beccs 22. A penalty to Beckenham 15M out resulted in a clever chip over the defence and a footrace to touch down which Beckenham won. First points to Beckenham 5-0 as the conversion went wide. From the re-start Beckenham again moved into Beccs half and into the 22 again in front of their clubhouse. From a line-out to Beccs, a quick off-the-top ball was spun to Gbemie playing at centre, seeing a slight gap he went for it and broke through from 80M out. Skirting round the cover defence, he scored under the posts and with Gareth Robinson’s conversion, Beccs were 7-5 up at the close of the half. The second half continued in the same manner as the first with no quarter being given and some thumping tackles going in. Neil and Gbemie made a great cover tackle to force a Beckenham player into touch-in-goal to save a score after a couple of minutes. A lineout on the half way was won off the top from Michael Malynn and quick ball to Gbemie put him into space. Sucking the defence in he chipped over the top and in the footrace for the ball chipped it forward again and skilfully collected to score by the posts, Robinson converted for a 14-5 lead. But, there was still 5 minutes on the clock and the game was far from over. Beckenham were not to be outdone and upped the contact and started to gain more procession, camped some 5M out, thumping tackles went in, but eventually Beckenham went over for a try out wide which went unconverted. Still 14-10 to Beccs but an anxious 2 minutes left for all playing and watching. It wasn’t quite the Alamo, but not far from it, Beckenham threw everything at Beccs and the lads responded fantastically. One minute left and the ref decided to yellow card 2 players, one from each side, for punching and retaliation, just to add a bit more tension. From the ensuing Beckenham penalty on the 22M the ball was spun wide to the Beckenham speedster, and it looked as if they were in for a deciding try. But it was not to be, another brilliant cover tackle from Neil or Gbemie (sorry I couldn’t see with all the people jumping up and down in front of me) forced the Beckenham player into touch-in-goal before he could ground the ball for the score. 22M drop-out to Beccs who kicked long and managed to roll it into touch, the ref blew for full time, a 14-10 win for Beccs. Absolutely fantastic - brilliant rugby lads! Beccs U18's at the BRDG Floodlight 10's Festival - Pool round Squad: Alex Leonne, Chris Bavern, Chris Taylor, Gareth Robinson, Gbemie Fisher, Ian Hawes, Jason Obee, Michael Malynn, Michael O'Hehir, Neil Page, Simon Spier, Tom Parker, Will Davis Coming runners up in the pool round, Beccs U18’s now play in the Plate final against Westcombe Park to be held at Beckenham RFC on the 22nd of Feb, matches start at 7pm. I strongly urge everyone to come down and support them, there was some fantastic rugby played at real pace and skill throughout the night. Well done lads. Nigel