On Sunday 28 April, Beckenham Girls rugby entered the Whiting and Hammond Kent Festival of Girls Sevens, hosted by Tunbridge Wells RFC. We were again joined by our friends at the girls sections of neighbouring clubs Old Alleynians and Westcombe Park, continuing the successful partnership that we’ve built through this season, which saw us able to field four sevens squads across the three age groups.

The Under 18s competition was highly competitive. The Beckenham-OAs-WCP combination has had some success over the season in the 15s game through our participation in the inaugural Kent Girls U18 league, but 7s rugby on a full size pitch is a different ball game! The U18s were up for the challenge and played together well, winning one game and losing two.

In the Under 15 age group we were able to field two sides, who faced each other in their first game of the day! The Beckenham-shirted side won all their pool games and proceeded to the cup semi-final, where they faced a narrow defeat. The side sporting Westcombe Park colours put in some strong performances, progressing to the plate semi-final where they also sadly saw their run in the competition end. A real success though for the clubs to put out two competitive sides, and a great effort from both teams on a rather large pitch!

Fortunately for the Under 13s, their competition was on a smaller pitch, more in the X7s format. The organisers’ headaches were no doubt worth it for a great waterfall tournament which gave the girls loads of game opportunity. The Beckenham-OAs side took a little while to warm up, but once they tasted their first victory in the third game of the day there was no stopping them, and they put in dominant performances against Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells in the final games of the day, loaning players to Tunbridge Wells to allow the game to be played. Medals all round!

This was our penultimate event of the season, as we draw another great year of Girls Rugby to a close over the bank holiday weekend with our tour to Worthing. Beckenham is a great place to play Girls Rugby and we’re bringing that momentum into next season – come and be part of it!