Women’s Rugby League takes off in SE London & Kent

South-East London and Kent only Women’s rugby league team; The Kent Ravens had their first ever home match over the weekend against the experienced team of West London Sharks. The team proudly sponsored by Snappy Snap (Woolwich) and Coventry Aquatics (www.covaquatics.co.uk) were led out by Captain Katie Lyne in front of a good crowd who all respected a minute’s silence for the victims of the London bombs.the match started with the Sharks pressing the Ravens hard in the first half. As the ladies from Kent Ravens got over their initial nerves and the strong forward partnership of Lisa Moore and Hebe West put in some hard tackles the ravens got onto the front foot and pressured back but silly errors let West London in for some early tries. Pumped up from the hard work of Helena Train the Ravens made many breaks as half time approached and with good support play from stand off Anna Plews, Captain Katie Lyne crossed for a try under the posts and Andrea Coop added the extra points with the conversion. The early exchanges in the second half saw the Ravens camped in the Sharks half with breaks coming from speedy wingers Kaye Billing, Elaine Jaxon and the ravens own London representative Paula Cooper until an injury to a sharks player held up the match and the Ravens lost concentration and women of the match Becky Ballance and debutant Andrea Scott took centre stage with some big hit however it wasn’t enough to stop the Ravens going down 66 to 6 to the Sharks.

The Kent Ravens men moved up to 6^th in their league and into the final position for the end of season play offs with a 40 points to 22 win over West London Sharks. Tries came from Alex Hatzidakas, Billy Merriman, Justin Walker, Michael Vincent, two from Daniel King, debutant Shaun Tandy and six conversions from Club Captain Andrew Munro.

While on Sunday the Ravens under 9s took a hard fought 4^th place in the South London Festival with Harrison Keeley and Jamie Wrathen top scoring with 4 and five tries each respectively.

Anyone interested in playing, coaching or sponsoring should email kentravens@... or phone Alan Bacon on 07734 082 754 for the Men’s team or Vicki Stewart on 07834 665 360 for the women’s team and also the Under 15, Under 13, Under 11 and Under 9s. Also see www.kentravens.co.uk for everything and information about the newly launched Ravens Lottery too.