Under 9's at the Kent Festival Preliminary Round

It was a tough day for the Under 9’s at the Kent Festival Preliminary round. The Under 9’s age group were at Canterbury and unfortunately after several days of good weather, the sun stayed away and it was very cold and grey. This was an experimental day for the Under 9’s as Folkestone put two teams out for the first time, the ‘A’ team to the main draw and the ‘B’ to the Development Cup, all groups at the festival looked tough to get through and it was certainly the case for our teams.

The ‘A’s were grouped with Sevenoaks , Ashford and Beccehamians and lost all three games, waking up for the last one against Beccehamians after 4 (Sevenoaks) and 3 (Ashford) tries to nil losses, Joseph Faiers scoring Folkestone’s try in a 2-1 loss. The losses in the group resulted in a place in the shield quarter final play-off against Gravesend which was, as expected, a hard game played with great passion by both sides. The scores were even at two tries a piece after normal time, Folkestone’s scores from Faiers and Tristan Parmenter. This put the tie into a ‘golden try’ period, Tom Kedwell came close to winning it for the Stones with a breakaway that was just stopped by Gravesend’s defence ten metres short of the Gravesend line, Gravesend fought back and some fierce tackling from Folkestone held the ball up at the Folkestone line after Gravesend had driven back up the pitch, that was the end of the first period and players had to be withdrawn to leave seven a side on a huge pitch for the second extra time period. Folkestone lost possession early and never recovered, Gravesend dominating the final period and deservedly running in the winning try. A tough day for the ‘A’s plenty of hard work in training to follow.

Team: Tom Kedwell, Archie Green, Kian Supple, Tristan Parmenter, Joseph Faiers, Lewis Hammerton, TJ Leather, Thomas Reina, Toby Walton, Cameron Brown, Thomas Cloke, Alfie Dove.

The ‘B’s were drawn to play Beckenham ‘B’, Edenbridge ‘B’, Old Alleynians ‘C’ and Ashford ‘B’ and faired better than their clubmates, getting off to a great start with a 4 tries each draw against the Beckenham side and drawing two tries each with Edenbridge before going down, unluckily, 4-2 to Old Alleynians in a match that was even in all but the score. Folkestone lost to a strong Ashford team in their final game, Ashford scoring four tries without reply, Folkestone came close to scoring on a couple of occasions but were held up by a spirited Ashford defence. Folkestone’s try scorers on the day were Miles Gray (4), Ryan Adams, Luke Squires and Leon Santer (2) and their defensive work was notable as this was the first time several of this team had represented their club playing contact rugby, with some of the boys only having trained once or twice. Particularly good tackling was seen from Leon Gurr, Leon Santer and William Cavanagh. A brilliant effort from the team on a very testing day, it would not have been a surprise if they’d won their first three games given how well they played.

Team: Ben Povah, Ethan Murray, Luke Squire, Leon Santer, Isaac Chamberlain, Cameron Stannage, William Cavanagh, Leon Gurr, Ryan Adams, Megan Pickering, Miles Gray, Dominic Bowden.