On a sunny day better suited to cricket Beckenham had a disappointing end to the league campaign losing to a side they beat convincingly away from home earlier in the season. Beckenham started brightly scoring first. Pat Wright kicked a penalty, after Thanet had been punished following a great counter attack from a loose clearance kick. The game then entered a period where neither side could develop any real attacking momentum. Beckenham were first to achieve an attacking platform. They won a good lineout in the Thanet 22. The drive was halted but a scrum was awarded to Beckenham. From a solid scrum Jarrad Tipene picked up at 8 and freed Scrum Half Neil Dipple who scored his debut try for the first team. Wright missed the conversion from wide on the left. Thanet were the next recipients of a penalty in kicking range. It was awarded for an offside offence but the reliable Gareth Redmond pushed his kick wide. There then followed a period of pressure for Beckenham as their forwards took the game to Thanet but this pressure was not converted into points. In fact Redmond pulled 3 points back for Thanet following a penalty awarded against Beckenham for pulling down a maul. The score at half time was 8:3 to Beckenham but they were now kicking into down the slope. Beckenham made changes at half time. Leigh Woodcock came on the play outside centre. Rayner moved to scrum half replacing Dipple and James Hixon moved to the wing. The second half started with Thanet showing more determination than they had in the first half. They quickly levelled the scores. Full back Chris Hay fumbled a ball in the 22. From the resulting scrum No 8. Jon Bell picked up blind and fed Outside Centre Peter Macaulay who went over in the left corner for an unconverted try. This seemed to spur Beckenham into action. They quickly re-took the lead when Wright stroked over another penalty given when the Thanet forwards interfered with Beckenham’s scrum half Rayner. This score was followed by a great try conjured out of nothing by the backs who showed pace and slight of hand to give Rayner an easy scoring opportunity by his standards. Wright slotted this kick from wide on the left to make the score 18:8. Beckenham now relaxed. From the kick-off they had the opportunity to put the ball safely in touch but missed. Thanet counter attacked well, off-loading in contact well and sent prop, Joe Winsom over for a converted try. Thanet’s next try came again from poor defence from the kick-off. This time it was scored by No 8 Bell after great counter attacking play. Redmond added the extras to make the score 18:22. They had the lead but once again Beckenham responded. The forwards took play into the Thanet 22. At a lineout they secured good ball and drove the Thanet pack back. The ball was released to Rayner who scampered over the line his second try that made the score 23:22. Wright could not add the extras but it didn’t seem to matter as Beckenham were now controlling the game. The next try resulted from a scintillating break from Outside Centre Woodcock who made 50m before releasing Steve Benham show who showed his pace to score another uncoverted try. With the score at 28:22 Beckenham relaxed. The next action of the game involved the colour red. In front of the referee Thanet’s tight head, Jim Green, kicked a Beckenham’s French 2nd row Seb Rose in the back at the bottom of a ruck. The referee was left with little choice and Thanet played the remaining 10 minutes with 14 men. However, they didn’t let this disadvantage prevent them running the ball back at Beckenham at every opportunity. As a result, in part of missed takles but mainly because of an ability to off-load in the tackle thus keeping the ball alive they eventually presented inside centre Stuart Plumridge with a scoring opportunity under the posts. He took it and the kick was effortless for Redmond. The score was 28:29 and in the few minutes remaining Beckenham failed to turn possession into points. Thanet won a game due to their determination and ability to keep the ball alive. Beckenham next and final fixture of the season is the Kent Plate final on Sunday 7th May against local rivals, Old Dunstonians. The game is played at Ashford RFC and kicks-off at 4.00pm on a day described by the Kent RFU as a festival of Rugby with the plate final the highlight of the day. | 
