Despite the unfortunate absence of Colin Senneck, the remaining Hartley players who represented Kent at the EPA Inter-Regional Championships, held at Brean Sands, Somerset on the weekend of 9-10 September contributed significantly to the overall success of the Kent squad.

Kent sends 18 triples teams to this event, 16 teams who have qualified in the 4 Regional Qualifiers and two selected junior teams (who must have played in the qualifiers to be selected).  These teams are then divided up as follows:

The top 8 from the qualifiers form teams Kent 1-8 in Division 1 and the Juniors make the ninth team in the squad.  They play the top 8 teams (juniors only play juniors) from the other regions in Division 1.  These teams are the best players in the country pitted against each other over 12 rounds of play.  On the first day, all teams play each other in 7 rounds.  On day two the teams play five rounds against the teams around them in position based on the overnight league positions.  The idea is that the top two teams should play one another in the final round on the Sunday afternoon.

There are two Divisions of 8 regions with two regions being relegated/promoted each year.  In Division 1, Kent (and previously South East) is one of the most successful regions, regularly maintaining their Division 1 status. This year other regions were Chiltern, Southern, Northern, Eastern, West Midland, Isle of Wight, London.  In Division 2 were East Midlands, Wales, Anglia, Thames Valley, Devon, Great Western, Kernow (Cornwall) and Combined.  The Combined squad is  made up of a combination of 4 teams from last year's Division 1 winners, 2 teams each from last year's Division 1 2nd and 3rd placed teams and a junior team from last year's Division 1 winners.  Therefore Kent provided four teams (positions 13-16 from the Regional Qualifiers) plus a junior team.

Finally, those regions with adequate membership are invited to provide a Challenge squad of four teams.  This year, eleven regions were able to send four further teams in the Challenge league. Kent qualifiers in positions 9-12 represented our region.  The Challenge is a straight series of games of each region against the others (10 rounds with eleven teams)

From Hartley we provided five players, Jean-Louis Guiot (Division 1, Kent 4), Charles Fribbens (Division 1, Kent Juniors), Joyce Nash (Challenge, Kent 1), Mick Nash (Challenge, Kent 1), Luke Fribbens (Challenge, Kent 4), and a team manager, Martyn Fribbens (Challenge squad).

Reports for each of these squads can be found by clicking here.  Division 1 (by John Middleton - Div 1 team manager)  Challenge (by Martyn Fribbens - Challenge team manager).  The final positions and statistics can be found here.

After an fabulous weekend, with over 700 players and 1084 games played, and temperatures in the mid 20's Celsius, Kent once again walked away with the Division 1 trophy and the Challenge trophy.  The Kent Juniors tied on games won with Northern region, just losing out on "points for".  It is a difficult job to achieve adequate points in the qualifiers to represent Kent but the honour is more than repaid in being able to be part of such a major event, with all the best players in the country.  Everyone at Hartley is urged to try the experience if they can.

Report Martyn Fribbens