Under 9's make it to the third place playoff

The under 9's travelled to a very wet and blustery Ash for this years East Kent festival. The team found themselves in group C against the favourites Canterbury A and Sittingbourne A.

The Folkestone team struggled to get into their first contest against Canterbury A losing 6-0.

In their second game against Sittingbourne A Folkestone did not allow their initial defeat get the better of them, With Ella Preston-Chambers opening the scoring closely followed by Zakary Davenport and just before half time Jonathan Schermuly made the score 3-1. The Folkestone defensive line closed the door on Sittingbourne in the second half with massive tackles by Max Pickering, Kian Lambert and Zackary Davenport. In attack Alex Cordell and Callum Howes scored a try each and Jonathan crossed the line for the second time to make the final score 6-1. A win for the Team but the weather forced us to lose our gazebo!

The Folkestone team went forward into the quarter final against a strong Canterbury B team just as the weather totally changed and the sun greeted the players. Zakary Davenport opened the scoring by employing Folkestone's constant pressure defensive game, by half time the score sat at 1 try a piece. Alex Cordell then put the stones in front once again, but with only seconds left on the clock the score sat at two tries each. Folkestone soaked up the constant pressure applied by Canterbury who camped within 5 metres of the Folkestone try line, but defensive play by Folkestone just would not relent. Then a team attacking move broke out to make ground up the centre of the pitch. On the last play of the game a great individual play by Ella Preston - Chambers won the game 3-2.

The semi final opponents where Canterbury A and this was a different Folkestone team that faced them than in the initial game of the day. By half time Folkestone trailed by only 1-0. During the second half Canterbury continued the pressure but managing to only break the Folkestone defence on two further occasions winning 3-0.

An extremely tired Folkestone team then faced Ashford A in the third place playoff, Alex Cordell managed to cross the line for Folkestone, however despite their best efforts Folkestone claimed fourth place after Ashford won 6-1.

Jake Langford, Daniel Lundie and Zak Dance joined players from Ashford to make a Barbarians team in group B. In their first encounter they also lost 7-0 against Whitstable A.
The Barbarians faced Ashford A in their second game and unfortunately they again failed to score losing 4-0. This placed them into the plate competition semi final against the hosts. Throughout the game the sides traded tries, but the Barbars battled hard to secure the win 5-4. This placed the Barbarians into the plate final against Sittingbourne A, again this was a close game with Sittingbourne becoming the winners 3-2.

So not only did the Folkestone team win their first ever trophy but our Barbar competitors won a medal each. Each of the players should be so proud of themselves, massive improvements all round. One player gave a great TEAM player demonstration throughout the competition he maintained his pitch position and continually made tackle after tackle even when he was struggling to stand up, our player of the festival was Kian Lambert.