Tonight, Bartholomew is joined by Ebbsfleet United manager Danny Searle after he lead his team to National League survival and we look back this year's London Marathon with the Medway group who trained together all the way from their first 5K.
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00:00Hello and welcome along to Invictus Sport, the only show on your TV dedicated to wrapping
00:17up all of Kent's sporting action. I'm Bartholomew Hall and here's what to expect on this Monday
00:22the 22nd of April.
00:25Girls survival. Ebbsfleet manager stays up as the manager praises his loyal squad.
00:31Running together. Group explain how the power of teamwork got them to the marathon.
00:36And three for none. Kent get first county championship loss at home to Surrey.
00:41But first, a round-up of the headlines and Maidstone boxer Sam Noakes has become the
00:48new European lightweight champion, adding a fifth belt to his already well-decorated
00:53tally. It comes after winning all 12 rounds against French fighter Jan Mendy, where Noakes
00:59went the distance for the first time in his career. That's right, until Saturday, Noakes
01:03had the joint British record for the longest run of knockouts. But despite not being able
01:08to extend that record, Noakes said he'll continue to train hard, keep doing what he's doing
01:12and carry on fighting for more belts.
01:17Next, Dilton's Barry Hawkins will return to the Crucible this year, with a point to prove
01:21this week as he looks again for a spot in the World Snooker Championship final. The
01:26Cuman will begin his latest title bid on Thursday against qualifier Ryan Day. The winner will
01:33likely face seven-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in round two. This all comes after the 44-year-old
01:40dropped out of the top 16 and failed to qualify last season for what was the first time in
01:4517 years. Speaking to the press, Hawkins says he's bounced back and is in his game in good
01:51shape.
01:54Have been released of Maidstone Leisure Centre's multi-million pound upgrades. The Aztec-themed
02:01splash pad is set to have slides, water cannons and lots of interactive features. It's part
02:05of a ÂŁ2.2m upgrade. It comes after fears the centre could be forced to close after
02:10counsellors were told the cost of maintaining the centre had rocketed by a million pounds
02:15in the last year. Work is due to start in June, with reopening pencilled in for mid-July.
02:21Let's take a look back at the weekend's football results. It was Gillingham's last bash at
02:25a spot in League Two play-offs, as Steven Clements' side travelled to promotion-holding
02:29Mansfield Town, and Maidstone United welcomed Hampton and Richmond to the Gallagher, hoping
02:34to end the regular season on a high.
02:38We start this weekend's look back at the Gallagher, where Maidstone United's place in the National
02:43League South play-offs was very much already secured, but playing Hampton and Richmond
02:47for the benefit of home advantage in those play-offs, it was full steam ahead for George
02:51Elakobi's Stones in their final game of the regular season. And it was exactly that, because
02:56with less than two minutes having passed, a Sam Greenidge header opened the hosts scoring.
03:02But Maidstone's lead would only last as far as the 17th minute, when a corner from Hampton's
03:06Sam Deadfield found Dean Inman, who then found the equaliser from inside the box.
03:11For the rest of the first half, neither side really made ground until a late cross from
03:15Jeff Tetanga to Sam Corn converted into a brilliant volley, giving Maidstone the upper
03:20hand and lead into the break.
03:23Into the second half now, and Sol Anju Smith won his ninth penalty of the season after
03:27getting tripped by Sam Dreyer. The confident captain Corn stepped up to the mark, just
03:31as he'd done many times before this season, to strike one home and give Maidstone their
03:35third of the day.
03:37The goals just kept coming for the Stones, as substitute Michael Adupoku put one away
03:41on the 73rd minute, before yet another came within the final ten minutes, a 25-yard half
03:47volley from Matt Bentley, which just happened to be Maidstone's 400th league goal at the
03:52Gallagher. Full time, and Maidstone secured fourth in the table, with Hampton and Richmond
03:56walking away just missing out on the playoffs.
03:59Elsewhere on finals day in the National South, Tunbridge said goodbye to goalkeeper Johnny
04:03Henley on his 304th appearance for the club. The Angels finished the season on 14th, whilst
04:08already relegated Dartford and Dover ended their seasons with opposing results, the latter
04:13taking their 27th loss of what has been a tough year.
04:17In League Two, Gillingham had their penultimate game of the season and their final one on
04:20the road too, as Steven Clements took his Gilles to Mansfield Town. Tim De Young put
04:25the midway side ahead in the opening half, squeezing the ball home from a tight angle,
04:29however the host snapped back in the second 45 with some heavy pressure, which allowed
04:33Davis Keeler-Dunn and Steven McLaughlin to turn the result on its head. The loss means
04:38Steven Clements' already slim hopes of taking Gillingham into the playoffs had finally come
04:43to an end.
04:44You can't do a lot about the second goal, but you can do something about the first one,
04:47and obviously I know exactly what goes wrong with that one, and it's basically just standing
04:52with a runner. It's a mistake, people make mistakes, but you have to learn from them,
04:56and you can't make them again. But we'll dust ourselves down, we'll come back in this
05:01week and we'll still try and finish the season as strong as we can.
05:04The Gilles, now sitting at 11th, will take on Doncaster at home for their season finale
05:09next weekend.
05:10Meanwhile, it was a huge final day in the National League for Ebbsfleet on what was
05:13dubbed Survival Saturday. Danny Sales' fleet held Boreham Wood to a goalless draw away
05:18from home, with the point being enough to keep Ebbsfleet in the division next season.
05:24And in the Izmian Premiership, Chatham Town lost 3-1 to Horsham, with Danny Kedwell sending
05:29one in during added time to deny the visitors a clean sheet.
05:32Elsewhere, Folkestone took away a well-fought point after trudging back from 3-0 down to
05:37draw with Dulwich Hamlet, and Margate are still in their fight to stay up after a 2-1
05:42home win over Wingate and Finchley.
05:44Here's how the table leaves them. Margate stay 19th and two points from safety, while
05:48Chatham have Enfield breathing down their necks in the race for second place, and Folkestone
05:5216th and safe from relegation. All three have one game left to play next weekend.
05:59Well one huge result from that weekend was of course Ebbsfleet's survival in the National
06:03League. When their manager Danny Searle took over the job in February, the club was in
06:09the bottom of the league and looking to go even further. The former Aldershot manager
06:14has since managed to turn things around. Well I caught up with Danny earlier today and started
06:19by asking him about those celebrations at full time.
06:49And it was a fairly tough end to the season, but saying that, the start of your tenure
07:13at the club was a really positive one. You got 22 points from your first 11 games and
07:17that was quite the pace to set things off. So you seemed to gel with this team pretty
07:22early on.
07:23Yeah, it's a very talented group of players, a lot of experience in there. There's a lot
07:28of players in there that I knew already and I'd either worked with or I'd come across
07:33in my time in football. So it was a no-brainer from our perspective to take the role because
07:39I knew the potential of the squad. The tough part is actually can you get that potential
07:44out of the lads and can you make them perform to the levels they need to, to ensure Ebbs
07:48Feet were playing National League football next season. That was the challenge and, to
07:52be honest, that's where the credit goes to the lads because they bought into me from
07:56day one and the rest is history from that perspective because we achieved what we needed
08:03to achieve.
08:04If you look at the 15 games that we've been in charge, I think we're joint sixth in the
08:08league for form and the only teams above us are the lads that are either in the playoffs
08:14or finished just outside the playoffs. So it's a credit to everyone involved.
08:19And thinking ahead to next season then, do you look forward to having a clean slate?
08:24Is there much you can progress from what you've clearly done in the last few games or is this
08:29a case of maybe making a few changes over the summer?
08:31No, I think you look to progress every day. It's regardless of whether you're top of the
08:36league, bottom of the league, wherever you are, if you're not striving to be better every
08:40day then you're probably in the wrong environment because I work on that myself. I try to better
08:47myself all the time and you sometimes take a step back because you've made some mistakes
08:52but as long as you're genuinely making steps forward in the right direction then you're
08:56going to hopefully be successful at some point and that's no different with the club and
09:01with our recruitment and our retaining for next season.
09:04We need to ensure we've got players in the building that are capable of playing at the
09:07level we want them to play at, as well as adding players that are going to strengthen
09:12the squad but also the line-up. We want to strengthen the starting line-up. We want players
09:15that are creating more competition throughout the squad. So that's something we started
09:21doing three or four weeks ago, to be honest, looking towards next season.
09:24And of course next season, well you've kind of confirmed it for Kent and for the county
09:29that will definitely have a team in the top flight of non-league football but Maidstone
09:34United could be one to join you. Obviously you played them last week in the Kent Senior
09:38Cup. What have you made of the kind of local scene of football since you've come to Epsily?
09:44There's a lot of strong teams within our kind of region and obviously from our perspective,
09:51and I don't mean this disrespectfully, that's up to Maidstone to control what they do and
09:55to worry about themselves. My job is to worry about Epsily United and what we're doing.
10:00But from a supporters perspective, local derbies are brilliant. They bring a different environment
10:07to the whole set-up and if there's a chance to have local derbies next season, then we'll
10:12embrace that. But as I said, I'll leave Maidstone's fate up to George and his staff to worry about.
10:18Of course, of course. Just before we go, is it too early to think about benchmarks for next
10:23year? Maybe personal goals where you want to end up? I think the biggest one is to not be in a
10:29situation where we're fighting for our lives on the last day of the season again. We need to
10:35establish ourselves as a solid National League side, not one that bounces back and forth from
10:39the leagues. We need to make sure that we're considered a strong outfit. Once you build those
10:44foundations, then you can start looking to build even bigger for the future. But the biggest
10:48priority is to make sure that we don't put ourselves in the same situation we found ourselves
10:53in this season. Well, Danny, thank you very much for talking with me. Enjoy the summer
10:56and best of luck for next year. No worries. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me on.
11:00Well, don't forget you can keep up to date with all the latest football news by reading Kent
11:04Online. But did you also know you can have your weekly digest of non-league news from around the
11:09county sent directly to your email inbox? Just search Kent Online email alerts, sign up on the
11:14website for all the latest written transfer news, match reports and interviews. And of course,
11:18there's plenty more alerts you can choose from, including all the latest Gillingham news, too.
11:24We've reached halftime. It means it's time for a break. But coming up,
11:27I'll have your final cricket score from Canterbury on the final day of Kent's
11:30county championship meeting with Surrey. Plus, we'll be looking back at the London
11:34Marathon with a group who all met in their shared journey of being complete beginners
11:38just five years ago to competing their first marathon together at the weekend. I'll see you soon.
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15:07Hello and welcome back to Invicta Sport Live on KMTV.
15:11Just after three hours of play on the final day of Kent's county championship meeting with
15:15Surrey at Canterbury, the visitors have come away victorious. The reigning champions dismissed Kent
15:21for 262 in their second innings, with Dan Worrell taking four for 31 and Cameron Steele claiming
15:28three for 38. Meanwhile, Joey Everson posted 53, while Matt Parkinson hit his highest first
15:34class score of 39. But it was only a matter of time before they were both dismissed. Surrey
15:39won by an innings and 37 runs. Kent captain Daniel Beldrummond had this to say after the loss.
15:45Yeah, the lads fought really well throughout the day. Obviously, it wasn't meant to be, but
15:51no, Parkinson played really well. Everson keeps his fine form going. So,
15:56no, there's some silver linings in what was a quite disappointing week. I think looking back,
16:01we probably left a few runs out there in that first innings. And yeah, it was obviously
16:07a decent toss to win from Surrey's point of view. But yeah, we would have liked to
16:11have got more runs and that would have set up the game completely differently.
16:15Well, time to remind you now that you can keep up to date with all the latest sports news,
16:19interviews and features from right here on Invicta Sport by heading over to our website
16:23kmtv.co.uk. When you're there, click on the sports tab because there you'll see videos like this one
16:29from when Abi spoke to James West, the middle distance runner from Thanet and Tunbridge
16:33Athletics Club member, about his Olympic hopes and how he needs to shave off 15 seconds from his
16:39personal best to qualify. From a 13-year-old picking up running in Ramsgate to a multiple
16:45British champion and Olympic prospect, middle distance runner James West has had a year to
16:51remember, making his European debut after winning his first title at the British Indoor Championships
16:57in February last year in the 3,000 metre final. The Tunbridge Athletics Club racer's roots are
17:04here in Kent, but he studied at Loughborough University and in Oregon in the US. Helping
17:10him along the way among his former mentors is George Gandy, the trainer who helped double
17:16Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe score three world records. Retaining his British title at the
17:23same set of games this year, James West's attention has quickly turned to this summer's Olympic games,
17:30but in order to get there, among transitioning to the 5,000 metre race, he'll need to match the
17:35Olympic standard of 13 minutes and five seconds, shaving off around 14 from his personal best.
17:43Determined to do so, James has one more hurdle this summer to secure his spot and finally become
17:49an Olympian. I'm super excited to try and make Olympic games and even the Europeans this summer.
17:55Obviously it's very fine margins depending on whether I make it or not, so it'll be sort of
17:59devastation or glorious joy kind of thing. I'm in hard training at the moment, it's a lot of
18:05you know hard work and I'm pretty tired all the time, but hopefully by the end of the season
18:09it'll be well worth it. And those fine margins you're talking about, I believe it's about 14
18:15seconds, that's the time from your best to sort of the Olympic standard for you to qualify. Could
18:21you just explain what that is and where you've got to get to? 14 seconds, it sounds like a decent
18:26amount but it also doesn't as well. I try not to look at the final time necessarily as the goal
18:32because at the end of the day I can't necessarily control whether I run that time or not. It might
18:38just happen on the night, you know it could be due to the weather, the quality of the competition,
18:42but what I can control is if I just do things right kind of every day really, eating well,
18:48sleeping well, obviously training as hard as I can. That time I ran in February was 13.19,
18:53we're definitely already a good step ahead of that a month later now in March, so I'm really
18:59confident I think we're pretty close to that kind of shape right now to run that kind of time 13.05.
19:04Give us an idea of what it's like, a day in the life of James, of someone training to become an
19:09Olympian with these wins behind you, what's it like day-to-day? Obviously what I do is a bit of
19:15a luxury, I don't have to do a sort of nine-to-five job and I'm always very appreciative of that fact,
19:21so I just make sure I take every sort of hour as an opportunity to get better, but day in the life
19:28is really training eight to sort of twelve, nine to twelve, nine to one-ish and then I get a few
19:32hours off in the afternoon and then out again for another double workout, so I'm generally training
19:37twice a day, very disciplined on the sort of diet side of things and my sleep in bed by 10 most
19:45evenings. It's a disciplined life and unfortunately I've had to sacrifice a lot of things along the
19:49way, like in terms of seeing friends and stuff like that. They all understand what I do and we
19:55all keep in touch and that's nice that they appreciate that. James, thank you so much for
19:59your time, it was great to talk to you and best of luck, we'll be following your journey.
20:04Thanks so much Abi, appreciate it.
20:07Now moving on, you'll remember on Friday we spoke a lot about the London Marathon,
20:11because of course it is such a massive event, many from here in Kent were taking part. Let's
20:15take a look at some of them now. Here's Wayne Smith who raced on behalf of his daughter Esme,
20:20we heard from him on Friday. She has a spinal condition which means she's in a wheelchair,
20:24so Wayne, who isn't a wheelchair user in his day-to-day life, completed the marathon
20:28on two wheels. Here he is on the iconic Tower Bridge, brilliant stuff from Wayne.
20:34This here is Andy Roberts, now he took home more than just a medal, he's been made a world record
20:39holder for the second time after having completed the fastest marathon run in a minimum of 20kg
20:45of chain mail. Incredible stuff. And here is Ruden Buter, who did more than just the London
20:50Marathon, he did it four times, racking up a total of 104.8 miles over the last few days.
20:58Well, in the last Action Replay we gave a shout out to beginners to runners Wayne Scott,
21:03the group where five of their members, who all met at the club as complete newbies back in 2019,
21:08all made their debut together. Well, earlier on today I was joined by coach Leah Simone,
21:13who helped the group train for the marathon all the way from their first 5k, as well as Claire,
21:17as well as Claire, one of the five, who has even brought her medal along with her.
21:22So I'm joined by Leah and Claire here now, thank you so much for joining me,
21:26congratulations on completing your first London Marathon. Tell me how it all went.
21:33It was an absolutely amazing day, so completely iconic, all the different things like Cutty Sark,
21:42Tower Bridge, the crowds, I've never seen anything like it.
21:48Yeah, and it just pushes you along. It was just amazing.
21:52I was following along on TV and they get these sort of interviews with people as they're going
21:57along and they're saying, oh, they've got aches in their legs and pain, but there's just everyone
22:00had a smile on their face at the same time. What was that side of it for you? Did you have a few
22:04aches and pains along the way? Yes, at mile 17, lots of pain in my knee,
22:09but I just thought, no, I've got to keep going, keep going, got that and go.
22:12Absolutely, and you did it kind of alongside, but in different heats with the group. Tell me what
22:19that was like to be with this kind of journey with the people that you met just almost five
22:23years ago? Yeah, it's just knowing that we're all going to get there, we will get to the end,
22:28we will see each other at the end and it doesn't matter how long it took us, we got there,
22:33we've got that medal and it is such an achievement. Absolutely. It's been worth it.
22:37And Leah, what did it feel like for you, for the group that you've coached this way? They all
22:41achieved it finally. I'm very, very proud of them all. I thought I was going to be crying as I saw
22:47them and I think where there were so many people, I didn't get a chance to cry. But I'm really proud
22:52of them all because I remember them when they didn't think they'd be able to do their first
22:55session and now they've done a marathon and that's just crazy. And the London marathon,
22:59no doubt as well. I mean, what would be your advice to somebody, because you must give the
23:04advice all the time at Beginners to Runners, to somebody that sees something like this, it's such
23:08a massive hill to maybe climb one day, but if they are a beginner, what is your kind of general
23:14advice to someone? I would say, take it literally step by step. Even when I started with Beginners
23:20to Runners, I genuinely didn't think I'd get to 5k. So when I did, I was like, wow, you know,
23:26like I've been telling myself I could never do this. And here I am, I've done it. And then I
23:31went on to do a half marathon. These guys have gone on to do a whole marathon. We all had that
23:34sort of negative mindset. We limited ourselves and we've proved that we're wrong. So what else
23:40are you limiting yourself to? Sorry, Claire, what was the best part of the race for you?
23:46Was there any iconic milestones that kind of stood out? Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge was insane.
23:54You can't really explain it. You go there, the crowds, the noise.
24:01It was wonderful. Do you think you'd ever take on something like it again?
24:07Yes, I've already gone in for the ballot. Oh, really? For next year? Oh, fantastic. No, no,
24:11really, really good stuff. So what would be, I mean, you've been with this group, obviously,
24:16for a while now, and we heard the advice there. What would you say to yourself when you first
24:21started and you maybe had some of those doubts about maybe taking on even just a 5k?
24:25I never thought I would even get to 5k. So to do half a marathon, well, first of all, it was 5k,
24:33then 10k. And then it was like, oh, yeah, let's put in for a marathon, half a marathon. So we did
24:38that. And then it was like, no, I've seen my friends, like another friend do the London
24:42Marathon. Got to do it. Absolutely. So Leah, tell me about the group itself. How can people get
24:48involved where you're at Wainscot, your particular branch? So we're based at Wainscot, but the club
24:53as a whole, B2R, we've got 23 clubs across Kent. So there's loads to go to. We run twice a week,
24:59Mondays and Wednesdays at Temple Mill School at 7.30. We've also got a walking club as well. So
25:04if people want, they're not sort of ready to do the running or if there's any reason that they
25:09can't, which is quite rare, they can go off and do the walking. So yeah, and we build you up with
25:16walk, run, walk, run for 10 weeks. So it's gradually letting people sort of build themselves
25:21up until they get to a stage where they can reach the 5k. We get a lot of people that have done
25:25training, like the couch to 5k's, brilliant, but it's really hard to do it on your own.
25:32I personally, even as a manager of the club, I cannot stand running on my own.
25:36Being part of a group really keeps you going and it pushes you on. Also, there's so much advice
25:42as well that you're able to get from everyone else at club, from myself, where you think you can't do
25:47it, but actually it's just you're going a little bit too fast and you don't even realise that
25:50it's as simple as that. It might be that your trainers just aren't working for you, but
25:54people are more likely to say, oh, I can't do it and then give up. And it's such a shame when
25:59there's so much support about and then they can actually get to reach their goals.
26:03So it's that group aspect that really helps you do better at the running itself.
26:07Definitely.
26:08Well, thank you both for joining me very much. It's been brilliant having you here to hear your
26:13story and congratulations and best of luck for next year as well in the ballot.
26:16Thank you.
26:18Well, that is full time on today's episode of Invicta Sport. We'll be back on Friday with,
26:22of course, a new edition of Action Replay. So if you took part or maybe one of your family,
26:27friends, family or friends took part in the London Marathon, do send in your pictures
26:32and videos and we'll make sure to include it on Friday. Well, I'll see you then. Bye bye.
26:52Bye bye.