Nearly at the end of our first foray into League 1 and today we extend a warm welcome to our old friends from up the Fosse Way, Leicester Lions. This is their final away game of the season and I gather a large contingent of supporters will be here to urge them on. We have had some close encounters over recent years and they will be pushing hard for a win to help them overhaul Esher who lurk just above them in the league, so we will need to be at our best. Not only do I remember the close games at Leicester, I well remember the lamb faggots we enjoyed a couple of years ago, absolutely delicious!

Congratulations are in order to the Girls under 16's on their reaching the final of the National Cup, a truly magnificent achievement and well deserved. Dartfordians never gave up but on the day our girls proved superior in all aspects of the game. The final against Sandal from Wakefield, is to be played at Sixways Stadium on 'Star Wars Day' (for those not of that generation, May 4th). Commiserations to the Under 18 girls who went out at the semi-final stage despite a tremendous 29 all draw. In another outstanding game played in front of a big enthusiastic crowd both sides scored the same number of tries and conversions and so our girls lost out as the home side. Best of luck to Basildon in the final. Not to be outdone the Boys under 16's gave a sterling performance to win the Combination Plate, well done to all three sides. As I have said previously in this column the future of the club is in secure hands, and a huge thank and well done to all the coaches and everyone concerned for their development. It was good to see so many members cheering the girls on although one anonymous member had told his missus he was going to B & Q.

The Knights take on Dursley, a win will get them up, and well deserved it would be. They have had a good strong season. The Warriors take on St. Brendan’s, also hoping to end the season with a win and prepare for next season. Both sides have played some really good rugby this season, we wish them well.

Mr. Sweeney, the Chief Executive of the RFU survived the vote of 'No Confidence' safely, not a terribly good turnout for the vote. However. great promises were made to instigate a 'Governance Review and Reform'. It still seems to me that the emphasis is on the full time professional game. There will be no Premiership if the lower levels are left to struggle, it is from our clubs and many, many more that the budding Premiership players come. Another issue that concerns me is that where players are playing for both club and college, college have priority and decide when players are available, this can have damaging implications for clubs at either end of the table

Elsewhere, it's a 'Winner Take All' at the Mall this week with the Mall XV playing Camborne, with the winners being the likeliest candidates for promotion. They will be joined most probably by Leeds Tykes and Tonbridge Juddians. Tonbridge we know well from recent encounters in League 2, Leeds we well remember from our National Cup encounter some years ago in front of a big crowd at Stade Landseer. It will be good to renew old acquaintances.

Don't forget your tickets to the Summer Ball, on sale now, posh nosh, awards and a chance to strut yourself on the dance floor. You never know Craig Revel Horwood might be on the lookout for budding shoe shufflers.

Anyway, back to today, we will certainly need to be at our best.
So let’s get behind the lads, c'mon you Dings, shove 'em up the M32.