Kent Vase Final @ Ashford RFC - Sunday 8th May 2005 Beccehamians 8 - Dover 15 Beccehamians entered their first county cup final against Kent League 1 champions Dover in confident mood. Buoyed by two outstanding hard fought victories both away from home against Sittingbourne 13-9 in the Quarter-final and Guys Hospital 33-18 in the Semi-Final there was an air of anticipation amongst the 150 vocal Beccehamians supporters. The open exchanges produced some strong running and crunching tackles from both sides trying to stamp their authority on the game. Both set of backs ran from deep breaking the gain line to test the opposition only to be thwarted by good cover tackling and being ushered into touch. The pressure was eventually rewarded on 7 mins with a Beccs penalty converted by centre Joe Goodwillie - 3-0. Beccs fly half Jim Bryan's tactical kicking advanced them closer to the Dover try line. A neat line out catch a driving maul on the opposition 22 after 12 mins was too strong to be defended and prop Nick Hayler was credited with the try, unconverted - 8-0. Dover fought straight back advancing up the field and responding with a penalty from their fly half after 15mins - 8-3. The Beccs front row (aided by combined weight of 54 stone) continually drove the Dover scrum backwards, turning over possession-as they have been doing all year. In response the Dover pack darted round the fringes of the breakdown sucking in the Beccs defence to create a try scoring opportunity on 35 mins for their fly half, unconverted. Half time 8-8 The huge tackle count from both sides created an intense and closely fought final. A close encounter was almost expected following Dover's narrow victories in their league campaign 5-0 at home & 10-5 away. Beccs man of the match, centre Neil Alcorn, was solid in defence and made numerous breaks only to be denied by good Dover defence. After spending much of the second period inside the Beccs half Dover's pressure eventually counted on 70 mins when the Dover fly half cut inside two despairing Beccs tacklers to score and convert his own try taking the final score to 15-8. Beccehamians look forward to building on their achievements in 2005-06 and a well-earned rest before pre-season training! Beccs Team - N.Hayler, B.Sweeting, C.Leaton, P.Russell, M.Appleton, T.Skelly, S.Jones, I.Anderson (Capt), S.Welch, J.Bryan, S.Painter, N.Alcorn, J.Goodwillie, T.Bryan, D.Kemp - (Subs) G.Stokes, A.Bentley, N.Stubbs