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Jedi kicked off their summer season with an impressive win at the Sunshine Sevens yesterday defeating defending champions Wooden Spoon 19-17 in the final.

The 52nd running of the tournament saw the usual plethora of talent descend upon East Grinstead RFC, with ideal cloudless sunshine conducive for some attractive rugby. With a straight knockout format in place, shocks were always on the cards and perhaps the biggest upset of the day was a youthful Esher knocking out Seru Rabeni's all Fijian Kaiviti Krusaders in the second round.

Despite including predominately Academy and 2nd XV players the Surrey based club dominated the contact area against the lethargic Krusaders closing them out to steal a 24-14 win.

Jedi had brought a talented unit with them with an emphasis on mobility and speed over physicality. Their biggest test earlier the day was against the high flying Koru Kamikaze, winners of four early season tournaments. With three Oxford and Cambridge Blues in the squad in the shape of James Greenwood, Sandy Reid, and Tom Gregory and the elusive Richmond flyer John Wehbe also impressing, the Jedi survived a potential banana skin edging through 21-14.

Their Semi-Finalists opponents were old foes and last year’s finalists, The Ruck U Spartans, who once again looked threatening cruising through the rounds, possessing a well drilled and physical unit as always. The Spartans struggled to cope with the Jedi’s urgency though, with Lapidus, Reid and Wehbe imposing themselves, backed up with a tireless work-rate and commitment in defense booking Jedi’s spot in the final with 31-7 win.

In the other half of the draw Wooden Spoon were making quiet progress surviving a brave comeback from Esher to set up a last four showdown with a Marauders Academy unit chaperoned by Army Sevens guru Howard Graham. With the nucleus of the ‘The Spoon’ coming from London Scottish, their fitness and ability to maintain depth in attack was particularly obvious. Skipper Roscoe and Paul Dunkley looked effective in racing to an unassailable lead and a meeting with Jedi for the Lady Astor of Hever Rose Bowl.

The day’s showpiece proved to be a see-saw affair with the physicality and fitness of Wooden Spoon against Jedi’s creativity and organised well oiled defence. Greenwood and Gregory combined early setting up Sandy Reid. Back came Wooden Spoon with Scott Hadden, son of former Scottish Coach Frank Hadden, touching down with Callum Wilson winning valuable ball in the contact areas. Yet they seemed to be able to up the initiative when required and tries from Wehbe and Pete Burroughs gave the Jedi some needed breathing room. Despite Wooden Spoon forward Finch closing the gap for the 2008 winners it wasn’t enough with Jedi running out 19-17 winners. Sandy Reid, a late addition to the squad, deservedly won the coveted Player of the Tournament award. In the Plate Competition Final it was the Olaf Axes who proved too hot for Sevenoaks to handle, running out 38-7 winners.

‘This was our first tournament of the season, so were a bit nervous turning up not quite knowing what to expect having not trained together at all, but we seemed to click and play some good sevens,’ said Jedi Captain Andy Jennings.

‘It helps with us all being good friends off the pitch and it gives you that boost to track back and make those tackles as you don’t want to let your mates down and helps breeds that commitment’.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season Jennings is confident he can continue to keep a strong squad assembled for a decent assault on upcoming tournaments.

‘We have a core of 5 or 6 guys who will play in every tournament and we supplement that with friends of ours. If we can up our fitness we should be able to make some inroads at the other tournaments that we are playing at like Church, Brighton, Pamplona, and hopefully Newquay,’ added Jennings.

Tournament organiser Garry Gordon was also in high spirits post-tournament.

‘It’s been a fantastic day and we even managed to arrange the sunshine which can make all the difference when it comes to putting on a 7s tournament.

'We had a few dropouts earlier in the day but we got by and entering the Quarter-Finals that’s when the quality seemed to turn up. That’s the beauty of knockouts rugby it gives that edge and some teams who got knocked out earlier will think they were perhaps unlucky.’