Join Abby Hook as a group of teachers from Maidstone return from an Olympic-inspired relay to Paris. Plus: Bartholomew speaks with three-time World Champion rower Emily Grant about her summer preparation.
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00:00 Good evening and welcome along to Invictus Sports, the only show on your TV dedicated
00:20 to wrapping up all of Kent's sporting action. I'm Abbey Hook and here's what to expect on
00:24 this Monday the 13th of May.
00:29 They call themselves the Silly Six. Maidstone teachers run to Paris to raise money for special
00:34 needs school.
00:36 Support through sport. Maidstone's Invicta volleyball team face Essex Rebels for heart
00:41 of Kent hospice.
00:43 Pembrey Power rowing champion dreaming of gold at the Olympics.
00:48 First night, Medway Rugby and Football Club have the largest number of female players
00:53 in the country. The club boasts 185 female players in total. Seven years ago, the club
00:59 had 13 youth players and three coaches. Since then, the club has grown to support 25 coaches,
01:05 four girls teams and two women's senior teams. In addition, the club is supported by Ealing
01:10 Trail Finders as a place of development for women and girls rugby.
01:14 The director of women's rugby there says they're excited by the club's success and proud to
01:19 support its commitment to the redevelopment of girls rugby.
01:25 Now many of us in Kent have popped over the channel on a ferry or in the tunnel, but not
01:30 many decide to run to Paris from Maidstone.
01:34 Well dubbed the Silly Six by their students, six teachers took on the Mammoth Challenge
01:39 to raise money for their school. After weeks of training, they managed to finish three
01:44 hours early in their relay race and with just £500 off their target of £7,000. Well, I
01:51 caught up with two of the teachers who took part earlier on.
01:54 Beth, Catherine, thank you so much for joining us. Glad you sat down. Hope your legs are
01:59 resting. You're actually a third of the Silly Six. Tell me about the journey and also why
02:06 the name?
02:07 Well, as one of the pupils on Friday realised, we actually are just ridiculous for doing
02:18 this as we ran out to the field to say goodbye to everybody on Friday. We were all running
02:23 in different directions, not really knowing what was going on. And I think silly because
02:29 this was a brainchild of Beth. It was a corridor conversation one day. Wouldn't it be brilliant
02:35 to do something to fundraise for school? What could we do? And the idea to run to Paris
02:41 came up and it seemed like a bit of a silly idea. So hence the name Silly Six.
02:46 And Beth, the hope was to do it in 36 hours. What was the timing at the end? And tell us
02:52 where you started, where you ended up.
02:54 Yeah, the plan was 36 hours and we actually managed it in 33. We started at Valgrove,
03:01 which is obviously a maidstone and we ran all the way to Folkestone and then from Dieppe
03:07 to Paris through really nice countryside, through lots of nice small villages in Sommery
03:14 and then ended up here at the Eiffel Tower all together within the 33 hours.
03:20 Was there any point of regret for both of you? Did you ever think, I don't know if I
03:24 could do this. Did you ever doubt your ability or was it pretty plain sailing? Was it comfortable,
03:29 I suppose if you did it with three hours to spare, pretty athletic?
03:35 It definitely was a challenge for everybody. There were definite moments where all of us
03:43 needed a bit of a pick me up and we all had to kind of support each other and really be
03:49 a team to push each other onwards. There were definite periods of doubting. Probably we'd
03:53 all trained really, really hard. Everybody had put in a lot of hours to make sure that
03:58 the running side of things and we also, whilst one person was running, another person was
04:02 always on the bike. So you always had a partner to kind of support you and talk you through
04:08 and kind of keep you going and have a chat or tell you that you were doing great. But
04:14 we really needed that. I think the thing that got to all of us and shocked us all was the
04:19 exhaustion side of things. Because although we had a break, we did it as a relay, there
04:26 were times and actually we didn't sleep for that 33 hours. I don't think anybody got any
04:32 sleep at all. So it was pretty much being awake for 33 hours. So that was the thing
04:37 that really got to all of us and exhausted us. And the fatigue was the hardest thing,
04:43 I think.
04:44 I can imagine. Well, you're speaking pretty coherently to us now. So I hope you've had
04:48 lots of rest. Beth, I suppose another huge part of this is what you're doing it for.
04:53 That's a huge driving force, of course. So tell us where the money's going to go that
04:58 you've raised. I believe you nearly got your target of £7,000 now.
05:02 Yeah, we're really close to target. We are an SEMH school in Maidstone. So all of our
05:09 pupils have EHCPs and for us, we wanted to throw a massive arts festival for them. We've
05:17 held two previously and the impact it has on the pupils is incredible for the children
05:24 who wouldn't usually get to experience live music and the festival acts that we have in.
05:31 So we wanted to raise as much money as possible so that we could have the biggest and best
05:36 festival yet. And that's kind of the driving force behind it, to give our pupils that experience
05:42 of culture, of music. Being so close to target is crazy. I mean, we wouldn't have been able
05:49 to do that without so many of our sponsors. I mean, we've had donations big and small
05:54 from friends, family, strangers, people we don't even know, lots of pupils and families,
06:00 but we've got six main sponsors who without them, we wouldn't be able to run the festival.
06:06 And Beth, this was your idea. So what's next for the Silly Six?
06:09 Well, you say that. Lots of sleep, lots of recovery. But I have already said I can't
06:16 wait to get the trainers back on and go back out running. I'm just going to give the other
06:21 five a little rest before I drag them into something else. I think we can do it in a
06:27 less amount of hours or, yeah, I don't know. I think that'll be something, again, I just
06:31 need to work on some of them. So watch this.
06:35 And you're not stopping there. Hopefully it can become something like the Silly Sixty
06:38 and you can get 60 different teachers doing it. I think there's more people you could
06:43 drag into it, I'm sure.
06:44 That would be amazing. I think our real hope at the moment is that before we get to our
06:51 arts festival, which will be in the summer term, we'd really like to hit our £7,000
06:57 target. So we're so close to that. So we're just trying to ask anybody else who fancies
07:03 sponsoring us on our GoFundMe page, through the Facebook page, it would be amazing if
07:10 we can get to £7,000. It would be incredible.
07:13 Well, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations to all six of you and the whole school behind
07:18 you as well. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
07:22 Thank you.
07:24 Now with Kent's football season finally finished for a bit of a summer break, we thought we'd
07:29 take time to look back at some of the highlights from over the year gone by. In a new segment,
07:33 we'll kick things off with a look back at when Tonbridge Angels faced St Albans in November.
07:42 For his first league game in charge, Stephen Clements took his jewels to the racecourse
07:47 ground to take on Wrexham.
07:50 Hello and welcome to the football roundup. It was a matchup of biblical proportions.
07:55 The Tonbridge Angels travelled to Clarence Park to face St Albans this Saturday. And
08:00 as the pressure mounted, number 17 Sutcliffe put his foot out just too late for a challenge
08:05 which caught their striker Jeffers and the referee gave a penalty for the Saints.
08:10 It was a simple finish with the keeper looking like he just picked the wrong side and the
08:14 score went 1-0 in the 33rd minute with ease.
08:18 The backline attempted to create space and beat the pressing forwards but a misplaced
08:22 pass was hounded on by Blackman and he found the back of the net with ease.
08:27 Though it's on the defender's shoulders, questions will be made to keeper Henley who
08:31 should be stopping shots at that angle and that makes two goals for St Albans.
08:35 And some well-weighted passes were built up across the right side and what a finish. Greenwich
08:40 just caught the ball and hit it first time as he was already falling to the ground and
08:45 the comeback is on for the Angels.
08:47 The Saints defence stayed strong and warded it away from the midfield but Higgs has started
08:52 to play. He sent it over to Sean Shields with a magnificently delicate touch and it's just
08:57 been placed right at the bottom right with his left foot to equalise the odds.
09:01 Now at the final leg of the game it's a clinical 1-2 from Shields and a well-weighted pass
09:06 to Greenwich who just managed to scrape it past the keeper for his brace and to make
09:10 it 3-2.
09:12 And the full-time whistle blows with Angels managing to grab that away win.
09:17 Elsewhere there were plenty of high-scoring fixtures in the National League South. Midstone
09:21 lost 5-2 against Hampton and Richmond Borough, despite a penalty equalising them for about
09:27 five minutes in the first half before Bloomfield scored his second of three goals.
09:32 In League Two Gillingham lost 2-0 to Wrexham after a goal in the very first minute of play
09:37 by their striker Oli Palmer. Gillingham had to their deficit now having come out of the
09:42 losing side in four of their last five games. Here's what new manager Stephen Clements had
09:48 to say about the loss.
09:49 "We didn't defend. We had two crosses coming to our box quite early in the game, which
09:56 is something we spoke about. We were trying to stop. But that happens. Sometimes you start
10:02 games well, sometimes you don't. They showed great strength of character. They could have
10:05 gone under there. The atmosphere was, the crowd were up and it could have been a difficult
10:09 afternoon."
10:10 And here's how the table looks after that unfortunate fixture. Gillingham have moved
10:14 into the mid-table at 10th but it remains anyone's game. They face Salford City this
10:20 Saturday.
10:21 And it was a tight game in the National League with Ebbsfleet managing to scrape a two-all
10:25 draw against Hartlepool away. And the table remains an uphill battle for 21st placed Ebbsfleet,
10:31 who would do well to start picking up points. And the table remains an uphill battle for
10:35 21st placed Ebbsfleet, who would do well to start picking up points. They remain just
10:39 out of the relegation zone but with Oxford, Flyde and Kidminster nipping at their heels
10:45 it might be a longer season than they thought.
10:47 In fact, Ebbsfleet have Oxford City at home in Cufflink Stadium this weekend.
10:52 On to the Isthmian Premier, Chatham Town and Folkestone both pick up 1-0 wins while Margate
10:57 manage to grab just a single point from a draw against Dulwich. Chatham Town manage
11:02 to stay in a podium position at third with the team's other Kent brethren staying strong
11:06 in the mid-table. And Folkestone and Margate all have matches this Tuesday.
11:11 That's all for today's Football Roundup.
11:14 And that was our new segment, Football Flashback, looking at the year gone by. Now, don't forget
11:21 you can keep up to date with all the latest football news as we head into the summer by
11:25 reading Kent Online. But did you also know you can have your weekly digest of Gilles
11:30 news sent directly to your email inbox. Just search Kent Online email alerts and sign up
11:35 on the website for all the latest written transfer news, match reports and interviews.
11:41 And if the Gilles isn't your cup of tea, well there's plenty more email alerts to choose
11:45 from, including all the latest non-league football news too.
11:48 But now we've reached half time, but please join us after the break with more sports news
11:53 from right across Kent.
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15:09 Hello there and welcome back to Invicta Sport live on KMTV. Now Maidstone's Invicta Volleyball
15:17 Men's team have had the chance to take a team three leagues above them, all in the name
15:22 of charity. Super League side Essex Rebels paid a visit to the county town to help Invicta
15:28 raise money for the Heart of Kent hospice. Or whilst having some good fun between two
15:33 sides who would usually not get a chance to play one another. Well here's Daniel Ananu.
15:39 I'm here at the Maidstone Grammar School for Girls where an epic showdown between Kent
15:42 Invicta and the Essex Rebels volleyball team is taking place. However, it's all in the
15:47 name of charity for the Heart of Kent Hospice Foundation. Let's take a look.
15:51 As the crowd were flooding in the players began taking their places on the court. Kent
15:55 in the pink and Essex in the black, the Invicta side were the underdogs playing three divisions
16:00 lower than their Super League opponents. Despite losing all three sets, Kent were pleased
16:26 with how the whole day had gone.
16:52 Money raised from the day is going to the Heart of Kent Hospice as the charity is preparing
16:56 to host a Shaun the Shoe art show in Maidstone this summer.
16:59 It's great, especially because Heart of Kent is a nice charity, helping out with terminally
17:04 ill patients and what not. It's quite close to home. So it's nice being able to help raise
17:09 that money and provide some entertainment while we're doing it and obviously get to
17:11 play some great volleyball.
17:13 Back on the court I spoke to some of the opposition who play in the top level of the sport about
17:17 how they found the day.
17:18 You know it was a great time. Everyone looked excited to be here and even the fans really
17:22 loved to see the excitement coming from them. It was awesome.
17:26 It's always nice to win a match and today's a charity event so I think the charities are
17:31 the winners. We were just able to provide a bit of entertainment for the crowd to come
17:35 along and enjoy themselves.
17:37 And although Kent Invicta could not grab the win, they did win in the end by doing this
17:40 for charity and as you can see they had a massive turnout with loads of supporters.
17:45 Daniel Anenu for KMTV
17:46 Well now it's time to remind you, you can keep up to date with all the latest sports
17:51 news, interviews and features from here on Invicta Sport by heading over to our website
17:56 kmtv.co.uk and clicking on the sport tab.
18:00 There you'll see videos like this one from when we were joined here in the studio by
18:04 former NBA star Ryan Richards off the back of his latest basketball camp held for the
18:10 next generation of ballers here in Kent.
18:14 Tell me about the camp. Tell me where it came from and how that idea sort of fostered.
18:19 Yeah so for me growing up in Sittingbourne there wasn't too many basketball camps and
18:23 I think in the whole UK. Playing 18 years all around the world from different levels
18:28 I wanted to bring something back and it's just grown and grown and the support from
18:33 the parents and kids has been amazing.
18:35 What was their reaction like right at the beginning because obviously it's grown massively
18:39 but I suppose when you decided to launch something like this did people sort of say oh there's
18:44 not much of that interest. I mean we don't follow basketball unfortunately here like
18:48 they do over in America for instance. So do you think there was a bit like oh how well
18:52 will this actually do?
18:53 Yeah I think you know it was for me it was my passion and something I wanted to do. It
18:58 was disappointing before Covid we had six kids and then after that we've grown and grown
19:02 and grown. So it was something new and now it's really kind of I would say just taken
19:07 off. It's truly humbling to see how many people are interested and how many people believe.
19:13 We can see on the screen now some of the youngsters you're helping. I will say I'm going to put
19:17 this in there. When I was about 11 I won MVP for basketball.
19:21 There you go.
19:22 But I wouldn't want to go up against you. Thank you so much for joining us Ryan. If
19:27 someone a young person's watching this now thinking I want to do that, I want to be him,
19:31 I want to be like that. What would your message be?
19:33 Just contact me. I was telling kids all camp. My nickname was Mute. I was scared. I was
19:38 timid. I didn't have the confidence to ask any questions. Just reach out. Reach out to
19:41 us on the socials. Reach out to me. Someone that knows me and I'm more than happy to help
19:45 you and guide you in the right direction whether that's on the court or off the court.
19:47 I think it's amazing to know that young people have that accessibility to someone that's
19:52 done so well in the sport as well and has this community backing behind them. Ryan it's
19:55 been a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much and best of luck. We'll have you on
19:58 the sofa again when these tournaments are underway and hopefully come along to them.
20:01 Amazing. Thank you for having me.
20:02 I'll put my skills to the test. Do a lay up.
20:05 Say MVP again.
20:07 And Ryan's running Richard's Elite. His basketball camp for children right across Kent.
20:11 Finally this evening, Pembrey rower Emily Craig says she was devastated after not being
20:17 able to compete to retain her European title after an injury prevented her from heading
20:22 to the event in Hungary just two weeks ago. Despite missing out alongside teammate Imogen
20:28 Grant, the pair have been unbeaten in every event they've rowed since the last Olympics
20:33 in Tokyo. And with now just weeks until this year's games in Paris, the former world champions
20:39 are hoping to take their first Olympic gold. Well, Bartholomew Hall caught up with Emily
20:44 to talk all about the preparation. Take a look.
20:47 Emily, thank you so much for joining me. Really good to have you here on the programme. I
20:52 wanted to start off by giving a nod to this brilliant unbeaten streak you and your partner
20:57 have had since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. That's been quite a run. How have you managed to
21:03 keep it up for so long?
21:04 I don't really know, to be honest. It's just kind of one regatta at a time, keep progressing
21:14 and yeah, taking it as it comes and not taking it for granted because I'm sure, well, I mean,
21:19 there's two regattas left for us. But yeah, who knows if it will continue? Hopefully it
21:24 will. But...
21:25 No, of course, of course.
21:26 It's a bit scary.
21:27 Well, I wanted to just mention because you were hoping to continue that on at the European
21:33 Championships just a week ago, but unfortunately you had to miss that out due to injury. It's
21:40 a competition that you have had great success in in the past. That must have been quite
21:44 a blow.
21:45 Yeah, I'm not going to lie. I was pretty devastated not to be able to compete and try and retain
21:53 our European title. But it's sport. These things happen. And, you know, the big one
22:00 is in three months time. So I'd rather rather get all the bumps and niggles out the way
22:05 now, get it sorted and be in the best shape I can be for the summer.
22:09 And of course, this summer is Paris. How do you look forward to that? I mean, tell me,
22:16 I must be honest, rowing is not my specialty. How does the kind of selection process work
22:20 for getting in the Team GB squad for that one?
22:23 So for us, we've been lucky enough to be quite an established crew since 2019. And really,
22:35 once we kind of got together, we got a medal in 2019 and qualified. We've kind of been
22:40 allowed to just crack on as a double. We obviously tested through the year as individuals. And
22:47 then again, when we come together in the crew, but in terms of selection, we qualified the
22:52 boat and we, you know, we stay top of the percentages, top of the squad. And that kind
22:59 of keeps it sealed in terms of selection for us, which is quite nice.
23:04 Oh, brilliant. Well, then it absolutely must be pretty much a shoe in then. Next question.
23:09 I mean, last Olympics, it was fourth place for you. How do you turn that into a gold
23:14 this time around? I mean, I'm hoping the work we've put over
23:20 the last two years will certainly go a long way to making that a gold. We've got much
23:25 more time in the boat together, much more experience. I think both of us are very different
23:30 people and very different athletes to the two women that lined up on that start line
23:34 in Tokyo 2021. And, you know, this time round, it's been quite nice because we've not had
23:39 a pandemic to deal with. No, of course. Absolutely. I think it's made
23:44 it a much, much more smoother run. I want to roll back the clock a little bit and talk
23:48 about kind of how you got into rowing, because I believe between you and your partner, it
23:51 was quite a different story. You've been kind of doing it the majority of your life, where
23:54 it was for her, she kind of picks it up at university. So tell me that story.
23:59 Yeah, so my parents used to go and do the British Indoor Rowing Championships. So like
24:06 on rowing machines that you see in gyms. And one year they were like, oh, you know, do
24:11 you want to have a go? I think I just turned 12. So I thought, OK, sure. And turned up,
24:19 had no idea what I was doing, somehow got a silver medal, was like, great. I want to
24:25 try this, you know, properly on the water. So I went down to my local rowing club, which
24:30 was Buell Bridge on Buell Water Reservoir the following summer and then got in a boat
24:37 and pretty much from there, just fell in love with it, decided that I wanted to represent
24:42 my country and I wanted to compete at the Olympics.
24:46 It's an incredible story. I mean, it's interesting how your parents had obviously had some history
24:50 with rowing as well. But then I mentioned earlier the kind of difference between you
24:54 and your partner. Do you think, I mean, how much of rowing is something that you see comes
24:59 through the genes and is something that's kind of born within you rather than something
25:03 that's kind of picked up? Because obviously for her, it was a much different story.
25:06 I think one thing that's very nice about the squad is everybody comes from somewhere slightly
25:13 different. Everybody came to rowing in a different way. You know, Emo founded at university in
25:19 Freshers' Week. People like me have founded at school or through their local club. There's
25:25 really no kind of set way to get into the sport, which I think is really quite nice.
25:32 Now, tell me, what does it look like between now and the summer then for you? Have you
25:37 got any more events kind of in the immediate future?
25:40 Yeah. So, we have the second World Cup, which is in Lucerne in Switzerland, and it's always
25:48 a great one to do. It's a very iconic venue. And we'll have, so far we've only really,
25:54 other than the Canadians, really raced European nations, whereas sort of we're expecting the
26:02 Americans, the Kiwis, the Chinese to turn up in Lucerne. So, we'll get a really good
26:06 idea of where we're actually sitting in terms of our form. And then we'll come back for
26:12 about two weeks, and then we go to Italy for a month. And that's our big work training
26:18 camp. We kind of go hideaway, go back to the hard grind. It's like a mini season all over
26:24 again. And then it's the speed work, come back for a bit, go home to our training centre
26:30 in Cabochem for a couple of days, and then head out to Paris.
26:35 Well, I mean, it sounds like a busy few weeks ahead. Best of luck for the rest of the year.
26:41 And we'll be following your journey, of course, with the rest of all of our Kent Olympians
26:45 come Paris. Best of luck.
26:48 That's full time on Invicta Sports today. Goodbye.
26:50 Goodbye.
26:51 Goodbye.
26:53 Goodbye.
26:55 Goodbye.
26:56 Goodbye.
26:57 Goodbye.
26:58 Goodbye.
26:59 Goodbye.
27:00 Goodbye.
27:01 Goodbye.
27:02 Goodbye.
27:02 Goodbye.
27:03 Goodbye.
27:04 Goodbye.
27:04 Goodbye.
27:05 Goodbye.
27:06 Goodbye.
27:06 [ Silence ]