Ladies :-
Division 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
Sanderstead Hall 1 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 64 | 26 | 18 |
Coulsdon and Purley S2 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 57 | 33 | 14 |
Chadacre 1 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 50 | 40 | 14 |
Limpsfield 1 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 45 | 45 | 8 |
Tolworth 1 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 62 | 6 |
St Andrews 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 26 | 64 | 0 |
Having been promoted from division 2 last season, the ladies team found it tough to survive at the very top. The top pair of Helen & Sarah would usually win two or three of their rubbers, but the other two pairs would struggle to make any inroads into the rival players. The most frequent results were 4-5 and 3-6 losses.
Mens 1 :-
Division 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
St Andrews 1 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 49 | 23 | 12 |
Penguin 1 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 47 | 25 | 12 |
Tolworth A | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 44 | 28 | 12 |
Coulsdon and Purley S2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 44 | 2 |
Ebbisham B1 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 60 | 2 |
The season was defined by close 5-4 wins (of which there were 5 in 8 games!) and by the excellent Po & Dan who, despite playing every game, did not drop a single rubber all season. Tolworth won this division last year and were the favourites to retain their title, but Penguin did a Manchester City and threw a spanner in the works at the last minute with a 4-5 away win, so we won it on rubbers. Three teams tied on the same number of points tells you everything you need to know about just how tight it is at the highest level in the Sutton league.
Mens 2 :-
Division 3 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
Chaldon 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 59 | 13 | 16 |
Woodcote 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 31 | 41 | 8 |
St Andrews 2 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 31 | 41 | 6 |
Ebbisham B2 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 30 | 42 | 6 |
Chart Centre 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 29 | 43 | 4 |
The team were not helped by the scheduling, with all the away games up first. We duly lost all four, followed by the first home game against a very strong Chaldon outfit. Our position looked precarious, but some strong team selection by Captain King eventually paid off, and saw us win 3 out of 4 home games to avoid the humiliation of demotion to Division 4. Ebbisham B2 only turned up with two pairs at each game, and so kindly donated three rubbers, as did Chart Centre on home soil. At least we won't have to play Chaldon next season!
Mens Fours :- (my team!)
Fours 3 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
St Andrews Fours | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 8 | 10 |
Chessington Fours | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 15 | 8 |
Dorking Fours | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 16 | 6 |
Ebbisham D Fours | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 33 | 0 |
Any of three teams could have won this division, so it was just as well we won our first 3 games all away 2-4, 1-5, 0-6. Chessington fielded a second-string team in the 0-6 away win (their excuse was their first team were all busy shopping at Bluewater!) and thumped us 1-5 when we had the return in the New Year; with a couple of players reportedly also playing for Bookham, this hardly came as a major shock. We cruised to a 6-0 home win against struggling Ebbisham D, setting up a showdown with Dorking for division winners and promotion. We needed to draw or win the last match, otherwise they would go up instead of us. Luckily, they were unable to put out a team and conceded a walkover, ensuring promotion to Division 2 for us next season.
Mixed 1 :-
Division 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
Foresters 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 14 | 16 |
Tolworth 1 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 39 | 33 | 10 |
Gladiators 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 32 | 40 | 8 |
Bookham 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 23 | 49 | 4 |
St Andrews 1 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 44 | 2 |
Mixed 1 had a horrific season, losing 6 straight games and doing permanent damage to their hopes of staying up. By the time their solitary 6-3 win at home against Bookham came about, it was far too little too late. In mitigation, the team never scored less than 4 rubbers at home, so some of the games were closer than the scorelines suggest.
Mixed 2 :-
Division 3 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
Chaldon 1 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 44 | 28 | 12 |
St Andrews 2 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 46 | 26 | 10 |
S. London Harriers 1 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 31 | 41 | 10 |
Coulsdon and Purley S3 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 35 | 37 | 8 |
Ebbisham B | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 24 | 48 | 0 |
The team were extremely unlucky at the start of the year to lose the first two opening away games 4-5. They picked themselves up and had excellent form towards the end of the season, winning 5 of their last 6, including a notable 1-8 away win over Coulsdon & Purley. Unfortunately, Chaldon proved - as in Mens 2 and Hybrid - that they were a bit too strong for us, and pipped us to certain promotion, even though we had a better rubber difference.
Hybrid :-
Hybrid 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
Chaldon Hybrid | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 102 | 6 | 24 |
St Andrews Hybrid | 12 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 52 | 56 | 14 |
New Malden Hybrid | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 55 | 53 | 12 |
Howard Hybrid | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 52 | 56 | 12 |
Sutton Adults Hybrid | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 44 | 64 | 12 |
Dorking Hybrid | 12 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 42 | 66 | 6 |
Ebbisham C Hybrid | 12 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 31 | 77 | 4 |
An extremely long season for the Hybrid players with 12 games contested. We started in typical fashion, with an away loss to always strong Sutton Adults, closely followed by a 0-9 home thrashing at the hands of ...yep, you guessed it, Chaldon! In November, we realised the season had started and won the following three games before breaking up for Xmas. The latter of those three games was a turning point in my season as I won all 3 rubbers for the first time. When the season restarted in January, I won all 3 in a 5-4 home win against Ebbisham to make the glory last a little longer, and picked up our sole rubber in the 8-1 away humiliation at Chaldon's hands. We scored a good 4-5 away win against a more determined Ebbisham side, but had crises of all kinds on the night of the away New Malden match - Captain King being involved in a car accident that had the police swarming over Cheam Road. It was a miracle anyone turned up for the game itself, but unsurprisingly with our heads in the wrong place, we lost 2-7. We then showed up in Leatherhead to play Howard, who were stronger than expected and nicked it 5-4. The score was tied at 4-4, 1-1 in the final rubber: me and Kaz lost the last game by 2 points. Can't get closer than that! We claimed a walkover against Sutton Adults who are reportedly struggling with low membership and couldn't put a side out. The final match of the season was another cliffhanger, in which the score was 4-4 once more, 1-1 in the final rubber, and 24-23 to us on points. The final point of a dramatic season was won by Captain King and Gerry flinging themselves on the floor to dink it over the net and cement a strong 2nd place.
As for my own stats:
Player | P | F | A | ||||
Jamie Gray | 17 | 26 | 25 |
So I just about won more than I lost over the whole season... not bad considering I was included in some teams against crazily good opposition (ahem...Chaldon...)
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