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Rugby Vets -
News
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Written by Brian Owen, The Argus
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Thursday, 04 March 2004 |
 It’s as grass roots as it can get. The bottom two divisions in Sussex battling it out for their own piece of silverware.
The surroundings? Well, not exactly glamourous. A bitterly cold, windswept day at Eastbourne with the added bonus of intermittent rain.
The crowd? Probably not much more than 100, including those sheltered in the clubhouse with half an eye on Ireland v Wales on the big screen.
For Old Brightonians and Shoreham, though, it was a big occasion. Their chance to sample cup final life for themselves.
This is as much what Rugby is about as the glamour international dates.
At least OBs did not have to wait for dozens of bagpipers to get out of the way before they could kick off.
The Sussex Plate has been in existence for years but was given a new lease of life by an imaginative re-structure from the county RFU a few years ago.
The junior event remained, as did the senior Sussex Trophy, but an Intermediate Shield was also brought in.
That left the Plate for the very smallest clubs in the county. The likes of OBs and Shoreham, both of whom have known hard times in recent seasons.
At one stage, Shoreham had to send volunteers to a local retail park to try and talk shoppers into taking up the game.
That was all forgotten last Sunday (22nd Feb 2004) as the two clubs enjoyed their big day.
Sponsorship from Greene King meant a prize fund of £215 to spend on kit from Ram Rugby was up for grabs, £125 of it to the winners.
 Sussex Two leaders Old Brightonians beat their Sussex Three opponents 47-12, but did not have it all their own way.
In fact, the biggest tribute to the format of the event was the efforts Shoreham made to be ready for their big day, including a spying trip to watch OBs the previous week, big turnouts at training and an array of replacements and touchline advisors on final afternoon.
Someone had obviously spent generously on a certain sports drink to help the players on the big occasion, though it was the OBs in need of aid with their recovery when Brendan Montgomery gave Shoreham a shock lead.
Sadly for them, they then decided it would be a good idea to regularly kick hard-won ball straight to the OBs full back.
The man wearing no.15 just happened to be Paul Atkins, the liveliest runner on view.
His daring raids helped OBs pile up six tries in 24 minutes through Mark Dodd (2) Ted Littlewood, Seb Akillian (2) and Sam Howes.
Dodd did not hang around long. By the half hour, he was already off the pitch, cigarette in hand, cheerfully admitting he was not getting any younger.
With two powerful finishes in the corner to his name, t6hough, he had done his job by then.
Front row stalwart John Aiken is another OB veteran. He was chipping and chasing at one stage in the second half like a latter day Graham Price (remember Paris 1975?).
Shoreham, though, re-grouped, did their bit in the pack and were rewarded when lock Ian Trevis rumbled over midway through the half.
Their front row man John Chapman admitted: “We didn’t really have the backs, but we reckon we’ve got a pack good enough to play in a higher division and we changed things after the break.
“It was our big day. We brought some vice presidents, collared some supporters and had some beers after the game so we tried to make sure we enjoyed it. The better side won, though”.
True enough, and it was fitting Atkins should have the final say by weaving through a series of tackles to touch down at the posts.
Howes added the extras with a drop kick. He had to do it that way; no one could find the kicking tee.
And you wouldn’t get that at Murrayfield either.
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