Ben Baker kicks a penalty...

With the first team pitch up for grabs as were,Captain Ben looked at his ragtag,bare 15 of Gannets and wisely decided to opt for the home comforts of the banana pitch to take on high flying Oaks.

In fact it was a reasonably competitive encounter until half time injuries to both Gravesend centres forced the spectating Martin 'don't tell my wife I'm playing rugby' Taylor into action to shore up the midfield.Quickfire tries at the beginning of the second half put paid to any hopes of a Gannets revival and further scores towards full time put the final nails in the Gs coffin.

The strong winds from hurricane Brian (who names these things?) meant that kicks were going nowhere near their intended target...which of course,in Ian Shuttlewoods case was nothing new...luckily Ben was kicking though.

Without the ballast of Mayhem and Percy at number 8 ,who at the time of writing this is probably still on the M6,the Gravesend scrum was woefully mismatched and getting dicked in every encounter.Good work and safe hands from the Sevenoaks backs pulled the Gs left and then right across the park before scoring in the corner.

The Gannets responded strongly and drove inside the visitors 22 where a penalty was won for something trivial and much to everyones surprise,Ben elected to kick and only bloody nailed it by aiming towards the Petanque..pitch? The wind done the rest and the Gs were on the imaginary scoreboard.

Another scrum bumming resulted in the visitors slicing through the Gs defence and dotting down under the posts for a converted score and a 3-12 halftime lead.

The game was over as a contest when Sevenoaks ran in two quick tries at the beginning of the second half but to their credit,the Gs didn't capitulate and caused the visitors some Paddy problems with the bearded beserker frequently running amok and asking questions of the Sevenoaks defence.

With the Predator substaining an injury to his writing arm late in the half,the Gannets were effectively down to 14/5 men and despite some good defence it was down to the aforementioned accountant to stop the biggest bloke on the pitch from 2 metres out,which of course,he couldn't and that was that.

So despite the heavy defeat the Gannets can be reasonably happy with the tenacity they showed with a bare 15 and players forced out of position in the face of a well drilled and experienced Sevenoaks team who played the game throughout with spirit and good humour.

Another home fixture awaits next week against a New Ash Green team in similar straits to the Gannets so until then...