Medway did its best to welcome us to Priestlands with the normal gale, fog and cold. We aren't supposed to record scores, but as it was the first festival of the year we kinda overlooked that :-)

The players were all well briefed about what to bring along so they managed to keep themselves warm and cheerful throughout. Given it was our second ever festival, the players did really well.

We entered two teams alongside Blackheath, while the hosts fielded one side. We kicked off with team 1 (Barnes, Crockatt, Mills, Nightingale & Walker) going 2 tries down to Blackheath before getting their bearings and running 7 tries past them for a final score of 7-2. Wins against their second team and Medway followed.

Team 2 (Bell, Copsey, Harris, Hayward, Hulbert-Jones & Robotham) started with a 4-4 draw against Medway, then wins over both Blackheath sides before the highlight of the day Beckenham 1 v Beckenham 2. Officially it was scored as 4-4 but I seem to recall team 2 winning it by a couple of tries.

We had players with fingers caught underneath opposition studs, a clash of heads (thankfully nothing serious) and some exuberant tagging. The reactions to those setbacks was impressive with the players composing themselves and carrying on. The defensive line work in prior sessions, worked. A few players were keen to collect loose ball and run with it, add in some devastating scoring runs and repeated defensive work on the try line then everyone left really pleased. The boys were certainly buzzing.

The future is bright!