Back4. Club History - PART II
At the time of the changeover we were very lucky to have 4 strong captains in Barrie Lee, Jim Nixon, Anton Phillips and Simon Cloke. With their playing skill, drive and enthusiasm they kept the club’s progress going with the players motivated to play good rugby and enjoy the club facilities. Jim captained the club when we first beat Canterbury, a milestone for the club. Anton led us when we beat Dartfordians, against all the odds, in the Kent Cup. Simon took us into the last 16 of the National Vase when we went down to Cornwall and lost by one score, when Tony Hughes’ last long range kick at goal floated a foot wide. But the greatest match of all was when Steve Hughes picked up a fixture with “The Eagles”, an American Services side on tour in the UK. We had to disguise it as East Kent or they would not have accepted the fixture but it was Folkestone with a couple of additional players from Canterbury and Betteshanger. The Eagles had many USA international players but we gave them a hard run and only just lost. The highlight of the game was seeing Micky Scott at 6ft 5” being dwarfed by the Swords Brothers, who towered over him at 6ft 9”! After the game they said it was the best and most enjoyable hospitality they had had.
Yet another change was necessary because we found that the running of the club bar and catering was becoming too much for a gang of enthusiastic amateurs. So we employed John Harrison, well known in the hotel business in Folkestone, to be our first club bar manager. We were doubly lucky in that appointment in that John’s wife Gill was a superb cook and she was able to develop an excellent catering side for herself and the club.
In spite of the fact that throughout its property-owning phase the club had operated with a huge overdraft, it never let that obstacle get in the way of its spirit of adventure. No sooner had we occupied the New Burlington Field, as it was now named, than David Teague brought along a company to quote for installing floodlights. Ted said “No” John said “Maybe” and David persuaded them to floodlight one pitch. The players then put on pressure saying, “if we have one we might as well have both pitches floodlit. Don’t worry we will raise the money to pay for them”. So both pitches had lights installed. Having got the lights, enthusiasm for raising the money to pay for them dwindled and the club was left with a long hard struggle over many years to balance its books.
In raising money to do this two events were used, which have become highlights of our and the town’s social calendar. The first was the Vice Presidents Lunch, organised originally by Andy Beggs, with his wife Sue and Evelyn Joyce as the cooks. Now it is organised by John McPartlin and the club has refined it into its present mixture of fine food, good wine, amusing anecdotes, with a good rugby match thrown in. The second was the Summer Ball originally set up by John Kidson and Andy Beggs mainly to provide a marquee as extra changing rooms for the Eurotunnel Tournament. This event quickly grew in stature and about ten tears ago it was taken over by Richard Worker who increased its quality and entertainment to make it one of the most sought after venues in the town.
To add to the cost problems the leagues had just arrived. Although Gordon Elliott was a member of the County Committee, Folkestone were placed in Kent Div 2, which we thought was ungenerous considering the playing strength of the club at that time. Although we ended up as one of the top three teams every year we lost promotion by points difference for four successive years. On one occasion, in the last match against Sheppey, Neil Cousins smacked his opposite number, as we were about to kick a penalty goal to win the match and promotion. The penalty was reversed, we only drew and we spent another year in Kent 2. In spite of the fact that we were strapped for cash, it was plain we had a need for a professional coach.
We were blessed with another stroke of luck when the army posted Steve Powley to Shorncliffe along with a seasoned prop named Gary Stocks. Under their leadership and coaching the First XV achieved promotion in successive seasons. Ten years later under Trevor Brazier as coach and with Dave Easby as captain we rose to the dizzy heights of London SE Div 3.
The succeeding Chairmen of the club, John Sutton, Gary George, Steve Cribbens, Paul Nash, Andrew Dagger and currently Glenn Foreman have had a hard task to run the club throughout these burgeoning years because the higher you are promoted the further you have to travel and that means more cost. As if they had not got enough on their plate another threat appeared – The Fast Link Project (which was later named Eurostar). For ten years they faffed about and wasted the valuable time of our Executive Committee. In the 1990s they put up one plan and then ran out of finance. Then a new team came and started afresh with the same result. The final session has taken about seven years and just been completed by Glenn Foreman and his team. Our unpaid barrister, Mike O’Sullivan must have felt he was in the “Jarndice and Jarndice” case in “Bleak House”, but the end result is not bad. We have a bit less land but a lot more money.
The Club, never lacking when it comes to enterprise, immediately started a scheme to lease land to make a 4th pitch and rebuild the original two pitches to be better drained. On the principle of “in for a penny in for a few hundred thousand pounds” they have plans to rebuild the clubhouse to provide more changing rooms, a bigger social area, a viewing balcony and more storage space. These projects are vital to accommodate our ever-growing Mini and Youth sections.
The Mini and Junior sections continued to improve in both skill and numbers throughout these difficult times. Then a new phenomenon appeared in the club led by Angie Smith – Women’s Rugby! Keith Woodward, who had lost out in applying for the club coach job, took them on. “Caddy”, who only had daughters, became his able assistant coach and these two have led the girls to the greatest heights. Through them one of our original minis, Catherine Spencer, has risen to become a current full England international. She was not the first international though. Maika …..? had achieved that honour when she captained Japan’s Women’s’ International team. We currently have two other girls who wear the England shirt, Lucinda “Lucy” Howland is in the England Under 19s and sister Abigail “Abi” Howland is captain of the England Under 15s. Sadly our club ladies side has temporarily fallen by the wayside but efforts are being made to rebuild it.
Throughout all of these years another phenomenon has been enthusiastically embraced by Folkestone players, that of touring. The first tour was to St Nazaire way back in 1979. France was the venue for the early tours but hard rugby and some animosity made the later tourists look for more distant and amenable places. Holland under Simon Cloke and Ian Spicer became a favourite destination and we have long-standing and happy relationships with Breda, Uden, Den Haag and Valkenburg. We have visited Octopus Rugby Club in Uden each year for the last 17 years. Their club is the same age as ours and they opened their clubhouse at the same time that we opened at Bargrove. Mike O’Sullivan and Philippe Nortier also fixed up the annual home and away fixture for our Veterans against Arras “Papis”. This very convivial and gastronomic affair has lasted 18 years and veterans are now playing in it who were colts when it first started. Sadly Arras cannot find the players and, as they say, the fixture is now “en someille”
Simon and Ian took us back to St Nazaire on the 20th anniversary of our first visit there. The following year Grant Husband, our resident Kiwi, took us to Guernsey. Then Jaroslav Novak visited the Folkestone Language School and popped into the club to see if we could host a tour for his club, Tatra Schmichov RC of Prague. We did so and were invited back to Prague two years later, because in the intervening year a tour to Portugal was organised by Gary Stocks and Barrie Lee.
The Prague tour was organised by John Kidson, Simon Cloke and Glenn Foreman and these three have been the tour committee ever since. It heralded many trips to east Europe. We were the firsts tourists to visit Tallinn in Estonia. We have been to Slovenia, Prague again, Poland and Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.
So we arrived in 2007 as a well rounded, professionally run club, catering for all ages and running social activities of high quality and good value for money. We have nearly balanced our books thanks to a hard working team led by Jill Scott, our bar manager and by Gordon and Lisa Russell our caterers. Our enthusiastic Social Secretary and fundraiser Phil Scott ably assists them. Paul Nash is doing a grand job as Sponsorship Secretary. With the help of loans and grants and sheer hard work the club in 2007 embarked on an ambitious re-development of the club, acquiring a new pitch to give us 4 and extending the club house to have a balcony area and a total of 8 changing rooms and a refs changing room.
Unfortunately after some seasons wrestling with relegation from London SE 3, the inevitable happened at the end of the 2006/7 season. Many youngsters were drafted into the 1st XV to replace older more experienced players who retired. These 17 and18 year olds found the going tough but what commitment and pride they showed in playing for their club. In particular a Saturday in Sidcup when they stood up, together with vets, Ian Spicer and Mark Rogers and played their hearts out in defeat, glorious defeat. Special praise here to Sidcup who were gentlemen and sportsmen to the final whistle. We wish them well. Those who were there will never forget it. The club is rightly proud of their Junior ranks and 2 members of the Under 16 Squad, Tom Wood and Brandon Jordan, were invited to join Gloucester’s Academy. Meanwhile Tom Johnson continues to impress at Saracens and is closing in on a place in their A team at just 18 years old.
The Under 16 squad became Kent 7s Champions and Phil Cooper took his Colts team to Ghent to play in their prestigious international tournament where they came runners up to National Colts Finalists, Moseley. The Colts also brought back The Sportsmanship Trophy as a gesture from all the friends (mainly female) they made in Belgium. And at the end of the season it was very heartening to see our young Ladies team reformed and coming runners up in the Kent Festival. Importantly, though, Folkestone were the only team to field a team whereas other teams in the competition were made up by clubs amalgamating. The icing on the cake was Abigail Howland being invited to join England’s Development Squad.
John V Kidson who seems to have rugby contacts all over the world has continued his Import Scheme assisting good young players to come to the club. Summer 2007 saw his most ambitious import when he beat the bureaucracy to help Brandon Sparks to fly in from USA to join the club. He has also recruited the Polish Light Cavalry of Pawel Martyniuk, Rafal Matusiak and now Adrian Mialkowski all of whom add considerable flair to the squads. Adam Dudycha another American from Kalamazoo joined the club for a 3 month visit at the start of the 2007/08 season and added real strength to the 1st XV. What became obvious was that these players from other countries quickly got immersed in the Folkestone RFC culture and played with great skill and pride. In 2007 John was deservedly honoured by the Kent RFU and became a Vice President of the Union.
The club now looks forward with great optimism and in great shape under our Chairman, Glenn Foreman, now in his 30th year with the club who leads from the front has appointed Lee Jeffery and Richard Guck to coach the lads and at the start of the current season we are seeing more players than ever attending and working hard to play for their club. The Minis now under Karina O’Donnell and the Juniors under Bob Gillett continue to grow in numbers and in 2008 the membership exceeded 500.
At the end of 2007 we saw Catherine Spencer appointed as Captain of England Ladies and in her first game as skipper, England beat USA 34-0. A large group of Stones supporters travelled to Sunbury to roar her on on what was a great day for the club. Further international honours came the club’s way when Rob Hill was selected for the England Deaf XV playing for them in 2007 and 2008. As a gesture to the club Rob gave us his first England shirt won against Wales.
In June 2008 Glenn Foreman ended his tenure as Chairman and in that time he oversaw a massive redevelopment of the club which was funded by the club itself, the RFU and we are very grateful to the De Haan Trust. This gave the club the best facilities in Kent so now we boast 8 changing rooms, a ref’s ensuite changing room, a weight training room and new showers. Upstairs the club room has been completely refurbished and will become one of the most sought after venues for private functions. There is also a new balcony terrace giving a great view of the pitches. A new pitch across the road giving the club access to 4 excellent pitches, 2 of which are floodlit. Andy Dagger took over from Glenn for his second spell of Chairman. After 2 tough seasons Will Turner stood down as club captain. In his time he set a fantastic standard playing through injury for the club he loves. Taking over was mad-but-loveable Dave Baxter who will ensure that Will’s example is carried on. Club coach Lee Jeffery set the players a target of London 1 in 5 seasons. Watch this space.
As we move towards the start of the 2008/2009 season John Kidson prepares to take the club into new waters with his most ambitious tour yet to Canada. At the time of writing 32 tourists had signed up for a trip which will take them to Toronto, Windsor and Niagara Falls in May 2009. God help the colonies!!!
Season 2008/09 opened with a disastrous match at Tonbridge Juddians for the 1st XV who went down 126-0. For those of us there it was truly awful but give the lads their due they kept on trying against a team which had become largely professional. Tonbridge had been the lucky recipient of major funds which they were using to sign and pay some of the best players in Kent to play for them. They were very good indeed. But after that match coach Lee Jeffery lead his team on a run of 7 games undefeated which saw them rise to third in the table. Tonbridge meanwhile were thrashing allcomers by 70, 80, 90 points. The 2nd XV were renamed the Academy XV and with former 1st XV skipper, Will Turner stepping don for a season to have a rest they went on a scoring spree themselves regularly scoring 50+ points against all opposition and reached the final of the East Kent Cup beating Thanet Wanderers who were unbeaten twice on their way to the final.
In March the club won a fantastic prize in an internet competition which saw 20 players, old and young, go to England's plush training base at Pennyhill Park where they met Martin Johnson and the England squad, watched them train (very impressively) and then take the pitch themselves to receive training from England Forwards coach, Graham Rowntree and players, Julian White, Matthew Tait and Dylan Hartley. All the players who took part found the experience to be fantastic and the England management and squad could not have been more friendly or helpful. It was a great day out and the team returned back to the club just in time to catch themselves on BBC News who had sent a camera to the session. Fate decreed that immediately after that training session Folkestone had to play Tonbridge Juddians again and this time they went down just 31-5 but many thought it was their finest performance as they really attacked the unbeaten TJs. In fact they took the lead and at half time trailed just 12-5. Meanwhile England after 3 dodgy matches in the Six Nations exploded into top form after the session thrashing France 34-10.
The new clubhouse greatly impressed all our visitors and it and the friendly atmosphere at our home games led many visiting teams and refs to remark on the great atmosphere at the club and the friendly welcome they received. One ref even said that he found Folkestone to be the best club in Kent to visit.
Season 2009/10 opened as ever with the club's annual Spitfire Tournament although it was preceeded the day before by a match between Estonia and England Deaf. This game eventually found it's way on to Sky TV and the club looked absolutely fantastic. The whole weekend was planned out by John Kidson who was once again doing his best to develop rugby in Eastern Europe. The club were so impressed with some of the Estonians that 5 of them arranged to return to Folkestone to play for the club. It was a wonderful alliance with the players committing themselves fully to playing for the club and working locally to pay for their stay. The club also helped 2 New Zealanders to find work locally so they, too, could join the club and all our foreign legionnaires quickly earned respect and many many new friends. On the pitch the 1st XV suffered because of a horrendous injury list but still did enough to reach the semi finals of the Regional section of the Senior Vase and the semi finals of the Kent Plate. In the league the team finished safely in 7th place but had shown the top teams that if they had a full squad they can compete with the best. Recovering from a serious injury Adam Tolman found a rich vein of form and had an outstanding season but the Player of the year award went to a new signing, Jack McMurray who was an inspiration throughout the season. Jack also won the Supporter's Player award. Confirming the club's focus on developing youngsters, Chris Petley ay just 18 was the club's top scorer. Great things are expected from him and his 2 18 year old chums, Alex Randall and Josh Palmer who also fought their way into the 1st XV squad. The Academy XV, 3rd XV and 4th XV were all promoted a division and hard games were expected but each one of the teams finished in 6th place in their respective leagues with the Academy especially doing well as they were now in the Invicta League.
Once again Catherine Spencer brought honour to the club when she led England Ladies to the Grand Slam in the Six Nations.
In the Junior section the Under 15s won the East Kent Cup and also the Kent Plate while the Mini section again grew in size.
At the end of the season it was announced that the club would join together with Folkestone Academy to form a Rugby Academy based at Folkestone Academy but using our facilities. In return the Academy would fund the salary of a teacher who would also become the club coach. Unfortunately, Lee Jeffery, who had done a terrific job in his 3 year stint as club coach did not possess any teaching qualifications so was not eligible for the job. Therefore Lee left the club at the end of the season but goes with the best wishes and thanks from the club for the great job he did. In his place comes Darren Molloy. Darren played for Wasps, Gloucester and Leinster and has a considerable pedigree including being a member of the Wasps squad that won the Heineken Cup in 2003.