So, it’s back to league action following the week’s break for the final of the Rugby World Cup. Without going into any detail. I thought it was a cracker. Even though the All Blacks were down to 14 players for much of the second half, they showed so much grit and determination to come back from 12-6 down at half time. They scored the only try of the match and were agonisingly close to taking the game with the penalty from Jordie Barrett on 73mins.

Were South Africa the best team in the tournament? That’s debatable. I thought England were unlucky to lose to them in the semi final. Vincent Koch was definitely boring in on our hooker at that fateful scrum and should have been penalised. I think Ben O’Keefe got that one wrong. Nevertheless less, the scoreboards say that SA scored more points and were ultimately crowned World Champions. So the Charlton Park slap on the back goes to them. The next tournament is in Australia in 2027, I’d better start saving if I want to go.

On the Charlton Park front, nothing much has been happening over the last couple of weeks. We’re still getting enquiries from our player recruitment campaign. But the last few seem to have come from footballers. When asked what position they play, generally the answer has been central mid or right back. Honestly, I sometimes wonder what part of rugby football club they don’t understand. We’re also getting a lot more enquiries about our Sunday Morning mini rugby. I understand that the numbers are growing week on week so that’s a positive. Only another fifteen years before some of them are in contention for a first team place!

Last time out, we faced unbeaten Crowborough. And Crowborough are still unbeaten having come away with a 31-16. However, even with a depleted team, we were very much in this match until the 70th minute when one of our players was given a yellow card for an infringement at a breakdown and we just run out of steam after that. It was a very good performance and the players and coaching staff should be too downbeat.

This week we take the A20 / M20 down to Ashford. A favourite fixture for the rugby wives of past Charlton Park players. Whilst we men head off to watch the rugby at Kinney’s field, Our better half’s hit the shops at the McArthur Glen shopping centre.

You may have noticed that we’ve had a couple of millimetres of rain these past couple of days. I’m told that there is a pitch inspection at 10am tomorrow so keep an eye on our social media channelled. If the game is called off you’ll be the first to know.

Something else to note, Ashford is hosting its annual fireworks display so there will be no car park. anyone attending should park in Kinney’s Lane.

Our Opponents

Our opponents this week are Ashford. Its home ground is Kinneys Fields, Kinneys Lane, TN24 9QB. They were never a club that featured on our fixture list during my playing days and have only come onto my radar over the last few years. What I never knew is that they were founded in 1885. So that makes them 8 years older than us.

Reading its history, it follows a similar path to many clubs that we come across in Counties one. There’s start-up, the club struggle and then there’s a period when everything comes to a grinding halt. The following is an extract from the Ashford website on the club’s beginnings

1881 – Like all rugby clubs celebrating their centenaries Ashford’s is clouded in the mist of time. In fact as the following extract indicates we are only four years late: Report from the Norton Knatchbull School Sports Records January 1881 “We played (Rugby) football that term on a field leading to the Cradle Bridge between the School and Town, and very curious football it was. One player got a try by dashing his cap in the face of the opposing full-back. When we pushed in the scrummage we (or at any rate some of us) faced our own goal and pushed with our backs.”

1885 – Ashford became affiliated to the Kent County RFU and we also joined the Rugby Football Union.

1886 – Nothing changes – at the AGM on 17th March the account showed Income £16.16s 4d Expenditure £17.16s 3d.

1887 – On 1st April Ashford came second to an Ashford Grammar School Past and Present XV by two goals and six tries to nil. Later in the year on 16th December, Ashford RFC (as it was called for the first time) played Ashford Volunteers winning by three goals and three tries to nil.

1888 – In order to preserve our representation we took to playing schools. On 3rd November we defeated Cranbrook by eight goals and four tries to nil. The result was in doubt to the end.

1889 – We continued to struggle to raise a team and on 19th October this obituary was recorded in the Kentish Express and Ashford News: – “Rugby Football in Ashford seems to have received its death blow, for at the AGM of the Ashford Club on Thursday evening at the Saracen’s Head Hotel it was decided to wind up the affairs of the Club. There was a very meagre attendance, and after discussing their position, the members, of whom there are not enough to form a team, considered that they could do nothing but break up the Club.”

1909 – Lloyd-George introduced his Welfare budget in time for Ashford RFC to re-emerge after a twenty year break.

1914 – On the 1st August it was all quiet on the Western front at Ashford RFC but a month later we bowed to a more significant game abroad and cancelled all fixtures for the duration of the war.

The period 1885-1914 was clearly the formative stage of our history. In sympathy with most rugby clubs of the day we chose not to have any international players.

The last paragraph made me laugh … The same can be said of Charlton Park

The first team squad is coached by the experienced Chris Dengate and the club captain is Andy Ticehurst.

The season has started with 3 wins and 3 defeats for Ashford. They sit in seventh place sandwiched in between Deal and Betteshanger and Dover. We are under no illusions that this will be another tough fixture for us.

Head to Head

26 November 2022 Charlton Park 37 - 21 Ashford
4 March 2023 Ashford 31 - 5 Charlton Park

Team News

To follow. We’re expecting a similar team to the one that faced Crowborough. Many of our soldiers are still away.