A BAD DAY FOR GRAVESEND

There is very little that I can report on the Gsss performance when I am not going to be around to answer for anything I write, (off to the sunshine islands for ten days), but I can say that they must feel aggrieved for the deliberate shoulder barge that saw Tom Bird side-lined, but no yellow card, luckily the weekend off with no fixture other than the Kent Plate semi-final will give him time to heal.
A couple of deliberate knock-on's also went unpunished, but in the second half, Barnes treated the huge crown to some fine try scoring as Gsss fed them the ball then watched as their backs outstripped them for pace as they ran for the line.
6-15 behind at the break one would have thought Gravesend were well in touch, and able to compete, but this opinion was soon replaced, as Gsss contributed to the next six tries that were run in unopposed by Fergus Jones, Kris Cottenden, (4) James Greenwood, who added to his first half score, with Tom O'Toole adding just two conversions, to his one from the first forty.
The best try of the day, again went to Fergus Jones as Gravesend found themselves unable to cope under pressure, as good backing up led to Barnes' ninth touch-down of the afternoon.
Oh by the way, Eli Atkins capped off one of the better performances for Gsss as he eluded the tackles to chase through from the twenty-two to touch down under the posts.
Debutante Jacob Bethelsen added the conversion to his two first half penalties to bring Gravesend's total to a losing 13-54.

Ian Finnegan managed to win the consolation prize for nearest correct score, being only sixteen points adrift overall, and he quickly passed this over the bar to save his embarrassment, for putting Gs down to lose 13-38.