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THE 54th SUNSHINE SEVENS
ESHER POWER TO FIRST SUNSHINE SEVENS TITLE

The Sunshine Sevens weekend lived up to all expectations, with fabulous sunshine and the quality of Sevens reaching an all time high.

Easter Sunday - the Senior Men’s Competition conditions were perfect for Sevens with a really strong field competing for the Lady Astor of Hever trophy.

Quarter Final of the Main competition saw the real action start, with some really close games.

Maurauder Academy 38 – 0 Wooden Spoon
Apache Braves 36 – 0 Esher Academy
Kamikaze Academy 12 – 7 Apache Academy.
Esher 19 – 12 Akuma Pink Panthers

The Semi Final were now well set up. The pace of Henry Pinto’s Marauders was just too much for Adam Hurst’s youthful squad. Marauder Academy 22 - 17 Apache Braves.
The other Semi saw Chris Kibbles home grown Esher boys kick up another gear and power over Kamikaze Academy 42-7.

A huge crowd watched the Final basking in the Easter holiday sunshine. Last year’s winners Marauders Academy looked really good in the early rounds, certainly having the pace men with Jordan Burns of Harlequins Academy and Chris Rose, continually looking for the space they needed. Ali Bone and Heath Stevens for the Academy did their best to provide quality ball, but Eshers Simon Gaynor and David Akinluyi gave an incredible physical performance creating a great platform. Fly-half Rob Kirby had room to put a lot of width onto the attack, making things easy for Player of the Tournament - Jamie Gibbs to look good. This was a really impressive controlled performance by Esher winning 38 – 26 in a trilling final.

Esher Manager Chris Kibble commented – “This was a great all round performance from a really hard working squad. We looking to build on this and are looking forward to the Middlesex7’s next weekend”

East Grinstead continued their strong season and pursuit of silverware by winning the Plate beating Cardinal 7 52-5. This helps gear them up for their Sussex Cup final on the 7th May.

Saturdays saw a strong field compete in the 10th Ladies competition for the Steve Cairns Trophy, The Pink Ba Bas returned to East Grinstead with a strong squad, sweeping through to the Final. Putting on a fantastic show for the crowd that Pink Ba Ba’s gave their now customary display of pace and support play beating Camberley 27-5 in the Final. The MVP award was a tough decision – but was always in the Ba Bas camp, finally going to “Kiwi Chris” Ovenden whose work rate was outstanding all afternoon. The Plate was won by Lewes who beat Chelmsford 19-14.Surprise package of the afternoon were Dutch side “The Wasps” from Nijmegen who won all their games in the Pool stages – but could not complete the later stages of the Tournament.

The Sevens weekend was celebrated in style on Saturday night with live band - 50 strong Dutch – “Royal Wedding Tour party” and St Georges Fancy Dress – kept Saint Hill rocking all night rocking all night.

Presentations to the teams were made by Paul Murphy the Vice President of the RFU who came down from Twickenham HQ especially for the Sevens. Mr Murphy commented that it was fantastic to see such a great event so well supported and the standard of Sevens on display, particularly when the end product means that local Children’s charities benefit.
For the Organising Committee at the Rugby Club, this was the perfect weekend and with bigger crowds should have helped the fundraising for The Step by Step School and the Opportunity Playgroup.