Great opening win for the Vets against Blackheath

Spitfire Gold (Bowl) Veterans Competition 2023/2024

Dartfordians Vets Home to Blackheath (Vets) – Saturday 28th October 2023 – 2pm kick off

Final Score 38 – 17 (Win)

Tries: Phillips, Ole Gunnar Edwards x 2, Mead, Jon O’Donnell x 2

Conversions: Scoffield x 4

Team: Neil Puddock, Henry Gregory, Clinton Walsh, Tim Stagg, Matty Edwards, Adam Hudson, Hendrik Roets, Gareth Whitmore, Arron Pearson, Dan Phillips, Tony Mead, Billy Blunden, Jon O’Donnell, Gavin Morrison, Gavin Dixon, Barry ‘Bizmarck’ Dennis, Iain McKenzie, Dave Jones, Micheal Fiander.

The Old Fartdordians took to the field for their first proper veterans games of the season and welcomed Blackheath to the Memorial ground on the world cup final Saturday. Despite numerous drop outs on Saturday morning (you would have thought the older members of the club would know better!!) To assemble this squad of 20 players, I estimate it took over 50 individuals being contacted but the upside is that we ended up with a decent side and we even had some backs!

We only had one whippersnapper in the side, at a juvenile 38yrs of age, with the rest of the side (like one of my favourite magazines) 40 plus. A honourable mention to be made to one of the Kent Cup winning Colts, Adam Hudson, who drove from the midlands down to Bexley to take to the pitch for his old club. He had a great game, dominating the line out with Matt the Kitten Edwards and putting in some immense tackles. Huddy is a true Dartfordian.

There were some familiar faces in the Blackheath side and they were out and warming up well before kick off, showing intent and causing a few people to start to question whether vets rugby really was such a good idea!

Darts started the first half brightly playing the small training pitch well and dominating territory and possession. Blackheath has some excellent players and put Darts under real pressure at scrum time in the first half. Clint Walsh, Henry Gregory, Neil Puddock, Macca and Mike Fiander were unperturbed and kept working hard, eventually bring parity to the set piece in the second half.

The work rate of the back row was excellent throughout, with Hendrik and Whitmore having a battle royal at the breakdown with the excellent Blackheath number 8. Prop Slayer Edwards rolled back the years with a fine performance, dominating the line out, eating up the restarts and scoring a brace of tries with his mazey runs.

Upfront it was a real contest with Blackheath challenging at every break down and some fierce carries from both packs. Despite the Old Farts dominating the line out Blackheath had a good maul defence.

The key difference between the side was the Darts midfield, with Mead, JOD and Phillips showing that class is timeless. Their tries resulted in the score line slightly flattering Darts. Excellent work from our outside backs, Gav, Gav, Billy and Bizzy who were sturdy in defence and pedestrian in attack. Billy Blunden, looking like a young ming the merciless, made some cracking runs. Another big

thanks to the two Gav’s for stepping into the side last minute and for playing slightly out of position, both did a great job.

A few points worthy of mention…

1) For the first time ever a player call me on Saturday morning to ask if it was ok if they did play!! That someone was Dave Jones, who made his return to rugby after a number of years out and knee surgery. He came on and instantly started to pull the strings, with a deft little box kick over the top, which resulted in a stolen line out and a try for Darts. From appearances he is now no longer writing for Eastenders, it would appear that he is now more in tune with last of the summer wine characters.

2) A Standout man performance from Dan Phillips playing at scrum half. Dan was involved in nearly all our tries and ran tirelessly all game. As well as taking on the captain duties.

3) The Ref managed the game well, keeping his cool despite excessive smirking by Clintony Walshmead and big thanks again to Adam Huson for being our referee liaison officer for the day.

4) The darts defence was generally sound with Henry Gregory, Huddy and Mead leading the way with their big hits.

5) Phillip Scoffield impersonator Mead at flyhalf was his usual excellent self, with some massive clearance kicks getting us out of trouble from our 22 and his general smirky runs making inroads in the Club defence.

6) Clint Walsh, which someone said is what it would look like if you ordered a Phillip Scoffield impersonator from Wish, had a solid game, also with the occasional cheeky grin.

7) It was excellent to see six players from the darts 2001 U17 Kent Cup winning side take to the field together. With one of their old coaches Martin ‘Albino Don King’ McKenzie on the side line watching. The target is to get the remaining team members to don their boots this season.

To their credit Blackheath continued to play hard all game and produced some good rugby, they score 3 solid tries and all stuck around after the game for a beer and some food. Overall a very good and enjoyable game of Vets rugby, tough and competitive and played in the right spirit.

MoTM award – Tony Mead

Worthy of Note: Adam Hudson, Matty Edwards, Jon O’Donnel, Dan Phillips

Dick of the Day / The Toby Hambridge Sgt S Award: Tim Stagg