Kent Mini Festival Sunday 19th March 2006. Under 7’s report. Photos - more.. Well the day started too early for many of us. Leaving a pleasantly mild West Wickham we all arrived at a windswept & freezing Sevenoaks. Freezing weather is becoming a bit of a feature at these festivals! We noticed on the program that we were in pool D, and assumed that meant we were on pitch D. We set the tent up, in gale force winds, near the wrong pitch, but it was handy for the port-a-loo’s and club house. There was even a steep bank very nearby which provided hours of fun for the team before and between matches. The majority of them looked as if they had been through a full contact game, prior to our first match. We only suffered one injury from the bank rolling, which was not bad, although that meant we were down one before we had even started! We trotted across to our pitch for our first game, which was against Sevenoaks A. Most of the team had been hanging around for a couple of hours so were cold and lethargic, despite a warm up. Sevenoaks came at us hard and fast, catching us and the ref napping. They re-set and were off for another try while we had player’s off-side and the ref was still trying to return to the centre spot. But the ref allowed the tries and he/she is always right. In fairness we were slow out of the blocks, except Cameron, who made several good runs in the first half. By the second half we had warmed up and gave them a run for their money. The final score was 7 - 5 to Sevenoaks, with a try each for Cameron, Joe, Max and two for Ollie Gadd. We had to kill another cold hour, keeping all the boys occupied with Chocolate and the usual Beano and Dandy. Our next game was against Sheppey, in which we again started slow but very quickly stepped up a gear. Again both sides had a couple of tries disallowed, which was disheartening for the players and supporters especially after some fantastic runs. We ran out 7 -2 winners, with a try each for Tom Buckle, Ollie Gadd, and Lucas Buckler, with Harry Scott-Munro and Max each getting two tries. With players, parents and supporters freezing, we all huddled in or as near to the tent as we could for shelter. You could tell it was cold as the mobile bar was doing very poor trade and none of our supporters ventured near it. Again we had a while to kill before our next game and had to control the boys who were determined to be human logs rolling down the bank. Our final game was against Folkestone, who we had not met before and so were an unknown entity. We had watched their game against Sheppey with interest and thought that we could win. But they must have had the same problems as us, coming out in their first game cold and slow. They gave us a good, fair but hard game, racing off to a 3 - 1 lead by half time. Again both sides having tries disallowed. The second half saw some great support play, passing and running by our team who levelled the game in the dying seconds to 4 - 4. We all thought the ref would blow his whistle there and then but he allowed one more play. The Gods smiled on us, the sun came out and we managed to get a turn over ball which led to a great try from Tom Buckle. Then to our relief the ref blew the whistle. We ran out eventual winners 5 - 4 with a try each for Max, Joe, Lucas and two for Tom Buckle. Unfortunately, we in the U7’s were unable to progress any further and that was the end of the competition for all 40 teams in our age group. We ended up second in our pool, with a very credible performance by the boys. The main down side to the whole event was the poor pitch markings which caused problems for not only our boys but players from all teams. This was disheartening for all who had put so much effort in to get a scoring try for their team. The organising club were made aware and we hope that the problems are addressed for future years. All of the team worked well together after the slow first half against Sevenoaks and played a great supporting game, putting together some great moves. As we keep saying, they made Rod and I, as well as their parents and supporters very proud. The Beccs player of the festival and therefore our player of the week stood out at this festival. He produced a number of great runs from one end of the pitch to the other. He exhibited great use of his snake hips and scored several tries. The cup was awarded to Tom Buckle. We have to thank a number of people. The first being Sevenoaks RFC, for hosting the festival. Secondly the resident MC, for his witty comments that kept all the adults entertained, throughout the day. Rod and I have to thank all the parents and supports, who turned out for this festival. It was a very early start; several had to endure traffic jams at 8.30am, as well as the freezing wind. Also we have to thank two people in particular, the first being Michael Lear, who is an U8’s parent, who agreed to be our elected ref for the festival. And lastly Steve Dennis, who was to be seen with his camera at all times capturing some great images of our sons/daughters in action on and off the rugby pitch. Thank you both. Well three festivals down and we have had a good run. Let’s hope our form continues for the next two. Andrew & Rod.