U6s do it again!
Congratulations to the Medway under 6s travelled to the Upminster Festival for their First Tournament of the year, and came away with the Plate for a second consecutive year.
With many players featuring for the very first time in a competitive game, Nerves played a part very early on, But as the day progressed Medway showed a lot of character, and proceeded to play with more confidence, thus resulting in some excellent Tag rugby being played.
Theo Korniotis, Caitlin Jefferies ( what a super all rounder ! ), and Dylan Earl all went over for their very 1st competitive tries for Medway,and carried on with some super Tagging.
With Eagan Sharp and Samual Burge leading the way in the Tagging stakes, backed up my Matthew Baker making his debut after just one training session !!!, It meant that Medway were always in contention through out their matches.
Old hands Miles Archer, Matthew Douglas,Caitlin Jefferies and Dylan Earl all playing in their second Upminster Festival, helped the new players settle in with some explosive running and excellent try scoring.
Kyal Wardle and Joshua Jones both supplied superb back up with important Tags and passes, showing that Medway have a great Future to look forward to next season with the Under 7s.
Try scorers; Miles Archer 5 Matthew Douglas 3 Caitlin Jefferies, Dylan Earl, Theo Korniotis 1
Taggers; Eagan Sharp 15 Samual Burge 13 Matthew Douglas 11 Miles Archer 10 Matthew Baker 9
Dylan Earl 8 Caitlin Jefferies 5 Kyal Wardle 5 theo Korniotis 1 Joshua Jones 1
Once again well done for a Superb Effort!!!
Kent Champagne Festival
Medway split into two teams for the Kent Champagne Festival on Sunday 22nd March.
It was a glorious day with the sun shining brightly & the only a few clouds dotting the sky.
Medway A had a tough draw and started well against Old Alleynians and at half time they were down 3-4. A close second half saw more tries, but time ran out & the game finished, Medway lost 6-7.
Next up was Maidstone, and Medway started brightly, tightened their defence and pressured the opposition into making mistakes which resulted in a fantastic 8-3 win.
Third match was against Bromley, who we had played against & drawn with in a recent festival. But this time unfortunately Medway couldn't contain their speedy attack and lost 3-5.
The final game against Beccehamians B's should have been Medways' game, but I think the team had eaten too many sweets earlier & had come down off their sugar rush. They put in a good performance & played well in attack but let their defence line slip which led to the opposition scoring and the end result was a 3-4 loss.
Overall Medway should be proud of their performance. Their consistent attack & fantastic understanding of the basic rules can only serve them well in the future, they were rarely caught offside(if at all) and passing ability is of a much higher level than their true ages, plus they nearly always pass backwards even when under pressure.
All the players received a certificate & medal for taking part.
The individual performances are as follows;
Tags
Patrick Hemmingway 9, Morgan Clarke 7, Harry Downard 7, Owen Thompson 7, William Unger 5, Sam Frewin 3, Dan Clark 2, Tom Kelsey 2, Joe Byrne 1, (congratulations- his first festival!) & Caitlin Jefferies 1.
Tries
Owen Thompson 6, Patrick Hemmingway 5, Dan Clark 3, William Unger 3, Morgan Clarke 2, & Harry Downard 1.
The coaching team would like to thank Mark for the photo's & Julie for the scribing and Mark & Darren for their opposition analysis!
The Medway under 7s B team faced a baptism of fire on Sunday when they came up against four very strong sides in thier group at the Under 7s Kent Festival.
With an even mixture of both year 1 and 2 children this tournament was always going to be difficult, but does hold the players in good stead for the up and coming Upminster festival in April.
Medway 1 Sidup 7
Medway came out of the blocks with all guns blazing and went over for the first try with Jamie Jackson outstanding, Sidcup came storming back to take the lead and progress on to what seems to be a flattering score, But Medway should have been awarderd at least two more tries due offside decsions that never went their way. But at no time did the team drop their heads or moan and played the game as it should be played with a SMILE!!!
TRIES; JAMIE JACKSON 1
TAGGERS; SOLOMAN 3, BEN 3, MATTHEW 2, EAGAN 2, KYAL 2, CIARAN 2,DYLAN, LEWIS CHARLIE NATHAN, JAMIE 1
Westcombe Park 5 Medway 3
Westcombe park shot into a two-nil lead only to be held back by some super tagging from Nathan Howells and Matthew Douglas. Soloman Murdoch North was outstanding in trying to take the game to them along with Lewis Carpenter. this resulting in Medway clawing back two tries before Westcombe park brought on their big Uns a went over for another three time. Medway kept fighting to the end with Soloman getting the third of Medways tries. Everyone on the sidelines agreed that this was a much improve performance.
TRIES; LEWIS 2, SOLOMAN 1.
TAGGERS; MATTHEW 3, NATHAN 2, DYLAN 2, CIARAN 2, KYAL, JAMIE, CHARLIE,LEWIS, JAMIE, SOLOMAN, EGAN, BEN 1
Medway 4 Old Elthamians
An ever improving Medway B took a deservedly one nil lead through Ciaran who started to become more prominant, the teams going hell for leather at each other, Lewis stormed over three times for second half tries. With Medway Tagging like demons again, Old Elthamiams managed to nip the result in the final plays.
Charlie Elliott stood out for his diving attempts at tagging!! Well done.
TRIES; LEWIS 3, CIARAN 1.
TAGGERS; MATTHEW 3, JAMIE 2, CIARAN 2, CHARLIE 2, SOLOMAN 2, KYAL, NATHAN, DYLAN, LEWIS,EGAN, BEN 1
Cranbrook 8 Medway 3
Medway took on the Group Favourites and unbeaten Cranbrook team. Cranbrook lived up to thier billing and Medway were always playing catchup.
All the guys put in sterling performances to keep the score respectable, with Ciaran,Lewis and Jamie going over for tries. when they came off all the players had smiles as big as cheshire cats. They may not have won a game ,but the triedand enjoyed the moment.
TRIES; JAMIE, LEWIS, CIARAN 1
TAGGERS; CIARAN 2 LEWIS 2 MATTHEW 2 NATHAN 2 EGAN 2 BEN 2, DYLAN, JAMIE, KYAL, CHARLIE, SOLOMAN 1
Old Colfeians Festival
Medway under 7's took part in the Old Colfeians Festival today (Sun 1st March)
Medway started well with a tough game against Bromley (the eventual group winners) the game ended 7-7, then played straight away against Tonbridge Juddians drawing again 4-4. Next they played Old Colfeians and the result was 5-5 but they deserved to win with their fantastic performance. Finally the last group game was against Beccehemians and they drew 6-6. It was a closely fought group with Bromley & Tonbridge Juddians finishing above us, which meant we were through to the Bowl semi-finals against Dartfordians.
This was a good match and Medway played very well, scored many tries and held their defensive line better than in previous matches. Unfortunately, Dartford did well too and the game was drawn at full time 7-7. We went into extra time and after another 2 minutes each way, lost by one try. Medway deserved to win, but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be this time, so the team collected their medals and should be extremely proud of themselves.
The teams individual performance is as follows;
Tags
Morgan 13, Samuel 9, Owen 9, Patrick 8, Ciaran 5, Solomon 4 (well done - his first festival!), Tom 3, Lewis 3, Iwan 1.
Tries
Owen 11, Patrick 6, Morgan 5, Daniel 5, Samuel 2, Lewis 1, Tom 1,
Owen Thompson deserves the "I can argue the most and throw a babyish strop!" award and his mother is suitably ashamed of his behaviour.
Overall the way the team played, they should have rewarded with some silverware, but fate decided against us this time So I think that they should all be congratulated on their team work and very proud of the way they played. It's tough sometimes but it's these times that make the rewards even sweeter when they do come. Roll on the next festival.....!
Upminster Festival
19 October 2008
On Sunday 19th October the Medway Under 7s took part in their first festival of the season at Upminster, Essex.
First up was Stanford, Medway got off to a blistering start with a try, the Medway team then showed great defensive tagging and some great runs down the length of the pitch gave Medway their first win at 5-4.
Chelmsford were next and this was a very even game, but Medway showed some great passing in particular a great run from Morgan Clark who passed to Owen Thompson before he was tagged, enabled Medway to score the best try of the Under 7 tournament. Unfortunately Chelmsford inched ahead and the game finished 4-3 in their favour.
Next up was Upminster A , good defensive play from Medway meant that the match was very low scoring but Upminster drew ahead in the second half and finally won 2-1
Final match was against Bishops Stortford, Medway Under 7’s were still enthusiastic and keen to show what they could do, Medway proved their strong tagging skills from the entire team , final result 4-3 to Medway.
Good day for the young team, finishing third in their group. Parents and coaches were very impressed with the entire team’s spirit and attitude.
The team was : Owen Thompson (3 tries), Caitlin Jefferies, Harry Downard, Daniel Clark (6), Iwan Cleave, Tom Kelsey, Will Unger, Patrick Hemmingway (2) , Dylan Earl, Sam Frewin (1), Morgan Clark (1) and Ciaran Mulleary