by Steve Hughes

A sombre period before the start of this match saw both teams and spectators stand for a minutes silence in memory of Daniel Holkham, a member of the Sheppey R.F.C. who was killed last week whilst on duty in Afghanistan. This war, to most of us, seems so far away but it certainly brings it home when someone close within the rugby fraternity oses his life and condolences and  sympathy from Folkestone Rugby Club is extended to his family and friends.

Folkestone were able to field a number of previous and current 'stars' in this match including Daz Short, Matt Roots, Dave Easby, Ian Spicer, Tony Hughes, Jason Spencer, John Lord, Danny Barnes  and Lodi Lama to name but a few. Raffle tickets were being sold with odds being laid on who would be the first to leave the field. That honour went to Lama when chasing a long ball pulled a ham string and was replaced by Captain Del MacDonough

Danny Barnes opened the scoring for Folkestone in his usaul inimitable style by picking the ball out of a loose maul on the Sheppey five metre ine a wriggling his way over like an electric eel to score under the posts. Spicer converted to make it 7 - 0.  Sheppey immediately hit back when a chip into the corner bounced back into the arms  of one of their players to score. The added conversion drew the game.

Danny Barnes is taking the 'Vets' theme to the extreme by playing in 1920 style shorts and pink socks and took some stick from the assembled crowd. It made no difference to him as he again did the same trick as before and waltzed over under the posts and added a dropped kick conversion.

Sheppey had struck back with a move right across the park after a loop pass to no-one in particular left the ball free for the opposition to pick up and score.

Sheppey were under pressure and a kick out on their 22 m. line was caught just over the line bu Hughes to swing around the defence and pass to Peter Marshall on the inside to score under the posts. Hughes added the tw points.

Matt Roots came on and his Nokia Mobile phone was visible in his ocket as 'her indoors' was, at any moment, due to produce another sputnik into the Roots family Matt wanted to be in attendance. He immediately made his presence felt with three startling breaks up the middle of the park. In the first he drew the full back and sent Spencer hurtling diagonally across the field to score and the second again drew the defence but could not find Pavel Martyniuk who was in support.  The third was the best when Hughes fed him on the burst and he tore through the middle to send McDonough in under the sticks to complete a 33 - 17 win.

A really entertaining match to watch and if only Folkestone could keep these players (all over 35 years of age) they could be one of the best Vets sides in Kent. Sheppey are a strong Vets side also and had the better of the ruck by recycling good ball and were able to caplitalised on that and put Folkestone under pressure.  They were also adept at moving the ball in the threequarater lind and it was pleasing to see that as these guys get older the game seems to improve the  spectators enjoyment.