Bromley, like Folkestone seem to be firmly rooted in London South Division 3 but this season the ‘Stones have played rugby which is worthy of promotion.

7th December 2013 Report by Alan Schofield
Bromley, like Folkestone seem to be firmly rooted in London South Division 3 but this season the ‘Stones have played rugby which is worthy of promotion. Whereas their opponents, 14 points behind them at the beginning of this fixture, were reasonably situated in 8th place well away from the relegation zone, but a long way from being promotion contenders.
But – matches between the two have traditionally been very close, especially at Bromley, and this year’s fixture was no exception.
The ‘Stones, having not won away in the league since October 5th, won this game in a bizarre manner after having dominated large parts of play. The last kick of the game was a Bromley penalty which, by any standards, was easy - and the loyal group of Folkestone supporters stood in disbelief first as the penalty was given and then - as it shaved the outside of the post to give the visitors 4 points for the victory.
Even the most hardened Bromley supporter could not deny that Folkestone were the far better team and in the first half 30% of the play was within the Bromley 22 mts. ‘Stones pressing for an early try elected to either scrum or run when 6 penalties were awarded to them with a 12 minute period. Every one of these was eminently able to have been converted into points but they were without the unswerving kicking abilities of Seyhan Fell. Bromley defended stoically and conceded a yellow card for repeated infringements. When they eventually kicked long out of defence the 10th penalty of game, but only Bromley’s third, was converted to give a home side a 3 – 0 advantage massively against the run of play.
Immediately Folkestone went back into attack and 3 more penalties took them to their accustomed position in front of the Bromley posts. But this time excellent work at the base of the scrum by Michael Gardner, supported in turn by Scotty Stewart and David Baxter, was desperately stopped just short by the Bromley defence – but Richie Bowen, ever ball hungry, snatched up the ball and touched down for an unconverted try and a 3 – 5 lead.
After scoring 14 tries in the previous week, the second half saw a confident, possibly over-confident, Folkestone striving to emulate this by making a series of individual efforts around the pack to break through a Bromley defence which was handling most of it with comfort. Tom Carvill made a determined run, but had too far to go on his own. Chris Petley and Kevin Murray tried and tried again. But last week the ‘Stones threw the ball far and wide. This week the fast style open play gave way to more individual attempts which all failed.
Hooker Warren Blandford and the stalwart David Baxter in the second row, had put everything they had into this game and were substituted by Steve Doughty and Ben Stringer. And later Kieran Smith came on for Kevin Murray to try to break the impasse.
From the 18 penalties awarded in the game, 13 went to Folkestone of which 7 were kickable. Jon Morton had one failed attempt. Bromley had 3 attempts at goal.
Surely this must be a lesson that points mean prizes and although the ‘Stones are able to play fast entertaining open rugby they must first give themselves a platform from which to launch their attacks.
Failure to do this, having had countless opportunities, it seemed like a frustrating second half was going to fizzle out with no addition to the score. But in the last minute Bromley started a move out of defence down the right hand side and Folkestone desperately had to defend this whilst going backwards. Bromley were given a penalty on the 22 mts. line slightly wide of the right hand post. Unbelievably a good strong kick missed – ‘phew’ said the players and the away supporters in harmony – for the ‘Stones to have lost would have been etched on their memories for years to come.

Team: Jon Morton; Richie Bowen, Alex Randall, John Eustace, Jack Cox; Adam Tolman, Jordan Godden; Martin Murray (Capt.), Warren Blandford, Tom Carvill; David Baxter, Kevin Murray; Scott Stewart, Chris Petley, Michael Gardner.
Subs: Steve Doughty, Kieran Smith, Ben Stringer.
Photos courtesy of Lisa Godden.