It may not be for rugby but the Hurricanes "Silver Tigers" team of John Buckingham Snr, Alan Whitehouse, Alan Routledge and Mike Renouf qualified to represent England in The Home Nations Championship by finishing 5th in the qualifying competition held yesterday (Sunday the 6th of July) at Princes Park Dartford.

When the Tigers lost their first game of the day the team may have wondered why they had bothered to get out of their bed at 4 am to get to the competition, however they got their act together and went on to win all their remaining games. They got better and better with each game, in sometimes very difficult playing conditions, cumulating with beating the then 3rd ranked team 13-2 in the last round.

Mike Renouf, 68, current President of the Isle of Wight Petanque Region and a former President of Sandown & Shanklin Rugby Club said "I shall be very proud to be pulling on an England shirt next month when we play Scotland and Wales. It's a real bonus at my age to be doing this"

Alan Whitehouse, Treasurer at The Hurricanes said "I like to think that this success is some reward to the team I am part of for all the time and effort that the 4 of us have put into developing the 32 piste quality playing surface at Sandown and Shanklin RFC over the last 3 years. It's now a venue that can rank with some of the best dedicated petanque facilities in the South of England.