Sunday 25th March 2007 - Kent Festival U10s - U12s U11s Triumphant in Kent Bowl Final Last weekend the under 11s removed their bridesmaid tag at the Kent festival by jointly winning the Bowl with Gravesendians in a great match. In the previous two seasons Beccs had lost in both the Shield and Bowl finals so this year went one better with a thoroughly deserved last play of the match equaliser by Josh Cotton. Earlier in the day we had drawn with Tonbridge Judds 1-1 which in itself is a great result as they usually get the better of us. We were then demolished by Cranbrook, quicker than us and well drilled, and although they deserved to win 3-0 the referee did nothing to help our cause with a very poor display that got the backs up of many teams. We then drew with Darts who normally just pip us, if we had held on to our 1-0 lead we would have finished second in the group, but they equalised late on and we went through to the Bowl competition in third place, but the boys can be proud of their rugby. In the knock-out stages we came across Maidstone who had no answer to our direct running approach and we managed to play all 17 of our players at some stage in the game as we won 5-0. That pitched us against local friends and rivals Elthamians in the semi, a side we have drawn against on occasion but never beaten. A great 12 man performance saw the best rugby the team has ever played with everybody contributing greatly, Callum Buckler forcing his way over their line for a try in each half. By now is was approaching 5pm and some of us had been there since 8am. We came up against Granesendians in the final and both sides were very tired. In this game we also managed to give 15 of the 16 boys who had stayed on a run out which is a great experience. They had one big player who was their focal point of attack and he scored on the stroke of half time just when we thought we had held him up. Despite taking the game to them in the second half we could not cross their line and it looked as though we were going to be runners up once again. The ref indicated from a line-out it was the last play of the match, one of their players tried to kick the ball dead but somehow we retrieved it and Josh dived in the corner to equalise, the final whistle followed. Great relief to share the trophy but the feeling was we could have won, but a draw was absolutely the right result, with the game being played in great spirit by both sides. Elsewhere the U12s had a similar route to their Bowl Final having beaten Darts B 3-0 and drawing with Alleynians 2-2 before playing Westcombe Park and losing 1-0. Despite just that one blip they went into the Bowl in third place and beat Maidstone 2-0 in the quarter finals before wallpoing Folkestone 3-1 in the semis. The final pitched them against Blackheath who went onto win 3-1 against a tired and somehwat injury hit Beccs team. Blackheath had one speedy back who did all the damage, but the boys should hold their heads high and be proud that they made yet another final. The U10s had a great start in the pool stage and after beating Folkestone 5-0 and drawing with Sidcup 0-0, they then went on to beat Medway 1-0. Despite scoring 6 tries and conceding none they were second on tries scored to Sidcup which meant they progressed to the Plate competition where they came up against a very strong Beckenham side who came out 3-0 winners. Seems like the boys were tired and could not get going, the great performance in the pool phase may have taken its toll. Again like the other ages we are winning far more games than we lose and we should all be proud of our performances Nick Brooks (Mini Chairman)