H&B explore switch to Kent League

AFTER four play-off defeats in five years against runners-up from the Kent League, Hastings & Bexhill Rugby Club is now exploring the possibility of actually joining the neighbouring county set-up.

The William Parker Sports College-based outfit, whose second and third teams have played in the Mid-Kent Merit Tables for the past two seasons, hope that the switch will go through in time for the 2006-07 season.

"It's been talked about for some time," said chairman Peter Southee, "and we're making inquiries. But it's not got anywhere at this stage in time and there are a lot of hoops to jump through. Kent are quite happy for us to go there, but you've got to get every single Sussex One club to agree, plus the Kent League and the Kent RFU. I don't know if there are likely to be any problems on that front, but there's likely to be more opposition in Sussex than in Kent.

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"I was at a meeting in Sevenoaks (about a month ago) when the RFU chief executive was down and he said the rules did permit a sideways move. In the past, we would have had to go right down to the bottom of Kent, but if you can get both sides to agree, you could transfer straight across into Kent One. It certainly couldn't happen in September, but we were hoping to be able to do it the following year."

One of the drawbacks of the Sussex League is that there is very little opposition for promotion-seeking sides outside of the top three or four teams. Numbers are also light after two teams dropped out of Division One during last season and two more clubs have recently turned down the offer of promotion from Division Two.

"We're quite keen on it to happen," Southee continued, "because we realise that Kent One is a much stronger league than Sussex One and it would give us a more even representation in games. You often thrash sides in Sussex, whereas the Kent sides are much more competitive.

"The second and third teams have already done it and that's gone very well; fixtures have been honoured and travelling-wise, it's certainly no worse and is sometimes better than in Sussex. It's at an early stage, but it's something we're definitely aiming for."

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