Day 3 - 50th Sunshine Sevens

Sunday 29th April 2007

Senior Mens Tournament

The 50th Sunshine Sevens Tournament is hoping to raise in the region of £10,000 and has been working in conjunction with Wooden Spoon, Rugby's Charity to raise money towards a Living Skills centre for Chailey Heritage School. We are also supporting the Opportunity Playgroup.

On Sunday the Senior Men's Tournament saw probably the strongest teams in many years take the field at East Grinstead Rugby Club. The first round started to show the shape of things to come with some notable results. Particularly East Grinstead 1st team who had the toughest of draws against the British Army, which they lost 31-5, where East Grinstead actually performed very well. East Grinstead Colts also had a great result beating Haywards Heath 17-14. The Colts did better than any other team from EGRFC by progressing to the Cup quarter-finals only to lose to Worthing. However, several losing teams did comment on the four guest players from The British Army! Shame they won't wont be coming through to the seniors next year, what a Pirates side that would be! Despite this the EG Colts played really well, and as many tries were scored by the Club's Colts as the guests.

In the Second round of the Main competition unfortunately we lost the current holders Rosslyn Park to an in form Apaches team 28-14. Irish Exile also exited at this stage to Evolve Cagonians 24-19.

The Rydon Plate Competition had a very strong field with an excellent East Grinstead side led by Matt Templeman loosing in the second round to a the eventual winners of the Plate Templars 15-12.

Two Plate Semi-Finals saw Templars go through to the Final with a 31-21 win over Voyagers and Blue Storm went through with their 31-21 win over Surrey U19. This was followed by an exiting final, where Templars beat Blue Storm 40-19.

Two brilliant Semi-Finals for the main competition were watched by the largest crowd we have seen at a Sunshine Sevens for many years, and they were not disappointed with what they saw. The British Army overcame Worthing 47-0 in a game where the score does not really reflect the quality of the game. The second Semi-Final between Susies Saloon and Apaches was a closer game but equally as good to watch. Susies Saloon came through as victors with a 21-12 result.

Before the final we were treated to a new addition to the round up of events at the Sunshine Sevens. It was one that would put us up there with the best of the American Football teams. The Kukri girls, as they have been fondly referred Team Manager - Kukr to, took a break from their promotional activities at the Kukri stand and their touring of the ground liberating spectators and players of their change for charity and provided the spectators with an unexpected and fantastic dance routine. We know it was fantastic because Garry our organiser told us over the public address system, it certainly sounded like Garry but it was difficult to tell as the windows of the Control Van were misted up at the time!.

In the words of Rachel Wensak the Team Manager for the Kukri Allstarzz

"We had a fantastic time at the East Grinstead Sunshine Sevens and were amazed by people's generosity to such a good cause as the Wooden Spoon.

The raffle for a Wooden Spoon shirt donated by kukri and signed by Alex King went down really well and people were more than happy to join in and raise some money.

Dave Harrison - Director of Rugby

A great weekend - many congratulations to Garry, the organizing committee and all the volunteers for their excellent work.

Well done too to all the players who represented EGRFC on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe Garry could find a slightly easier First Round game next year for the Senior Men's 7 than the British Army!! Still, a great experience for those who played in that game and no disgrace to go down 31-5.

Good to see a Colts/Fijian side out there plus an East Grinstead reserve 7 and, of course, the "Fat Boys" seven. One of my best memories will be of the Fat Boys Seven opting for the rolling maul as opposed to the normal 7's format of open running rugby. At one point all 7 were involved in a maul and only dubious opposition tactics prevented them rolling half a pitch length to score. Great stuff.

Looking forward to seeing plenty of people at summer training.

Phil Bowers A referee's View

It was an excellent day yesterday and the organising committee and helpers should be congratulated on their success.

I have a few quotes from the referee's who gave their time to make the weekend a success and a few who may not have been referee's!

"It has been my pleasure to be associated with the Sunshine 7's tournament as a referee since 1981 and to be supporting such good causes" - David Sainsbury

"I may be going to the World Cup as a referee but running touch for you in the semi final of the Sunshine 7's Phil will give me far more pleasure" - Wayne Barnes

"When do the referees get their beer vouchers?" - Pete McGovern (same every year)

"If I give up smoking will it make me a good referee?" - Rob Ward

"I have just driven from Suffolk, I will do a few games then shoot over to do the U20 County semi final in Sidcup and then dash back to do the Plate final" - Darryl Chapman

"Can I kiss a World cup referee?" - member of the EG ladies team
"I could get used to this" - Wayne Barnes

"It's a feature of this tournament that they let an old chap referee - isn't that Pete McGovern?" - Army coach

"Thanks for keeping score in the final, what was the final result?" - Wayne Barnes
"No idea, Snapper was giving me some refereeing advice and I forgot to keep count" - Phil Bowers
"I only asked you to do one thing and you didn't do that" - some bloke with a whistle

"Phil Holley is the best referee of ladies rugby in the County" - heard in crowd

"I've just seen Chris Pullen referee, are you sure that he can fly a plane?" - heard in crowd

"Harry as a referee coordinator has made so much difference to the running of this tournament" - Gary Gordon

"When I was refereeing a ladies game on Saturday they waited in the crouch position for a minute before I realised they were waiting for me to say touch pause engage" - Temps

From members of the winning Westminster Bank team in 1957

"What's going on with all these substitutions? In our day if you lost a man to injury you just had to work a little harder" - John Bowers

"We would do OK if we were playing in this tournament today but I think those Army guys would be too good for us" - Kevin Havard

"We should have been bankers, all seven of the Westminster Bank side are still alive while only three of us are left from the EG team" - Eddie Pitt

"How many of you were playing in the United Banks side that I played against in the 60's for Sussex?" - Bob Rogers RFU President
"Two of us" - Westminster Bankers

For those who couldn't make it you can get some idea of the fun that was had by viewing the following photographs, which were kindly taken by John O'Brien of First Focus Photo. If you are interested in quality copies or to see lots more shots taken on the day please visit their website http://www.firstfocusphoto.com