TJ's give Tunbridge Wells a sound thrashing....

I popped along to see the Tonbridge Juddians give Tunbridge Wells a good sound thrashing at the local derby game held at the Slade ground on Saturday. On a crisply cold afternoon I missed the kick off but arrived about ten minutes into the match to hear the familiar sound of the refs whistle blowing, followed by applause from the sizeable crowd, which marked a TJs try. "Damn it!" I thought, "I've missed it!" Then I realised that this was the Tonbridge Juddians and there would probably be lots more. And do you know what, I was right. I forget the final score but it was of the order of about 45 points to 5. That five for T. Wells, by the way ,was well worked but completely against the run of play, more a result of the opposition's determination and probably a momentary lapse of concentration on TJ's part. Let's be under no illusions Tonbridge are now a club with ambitions, they believe in themselves and it shows. The word "match" would be a misnomer to describe the meeting of these two sides because, from where I was standing, (behind the posts at the club house end, near the score board) this looked like a total mis-match. The men versus the boys. Tonbridge are simply outstandingly strong when faced with lesser opposition like this and I mean no disrespect to Wells who I'm sure fought hard throughout the whole game even when they must have sensed early on that the best they could hope for was damage limitation. TJ's will be in the national league next season; having only lost one or two games in two seasons they deserve to be. So next season there will be many much more closely fought matches and, believe me, it will be worth going along for . I mean what more do you want on a Saturday afternoon? First rate rugby, free pitch side viewing, no pushing and shoving at the turnstile, no traffic jams, good wholesome food, witty conversation and of course lashings of Larkins ale. The only dampener on Saturday afternoon was the weather: with around 15 minutes to go, with the game pretty much in the bag for TJs, the heavens opened up and lashed down on the, mostly unprepared, 200 strong crowd. Most braved it to the final whistle though, including myself who ended up sharing my minuscule foldaway umbrella with some 15 stone ex- winger who said he'd left his in the car! Thanks Chris!...