South London Storm Rugby League Club
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| South London Storm | |
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| Full name | South London Storm Rugby League Club |
| Emblem | Stylized Lightning Bolt and Rugby Ball |
| Colours | Maroon and White |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Sport | Rugby league |
| League | Rugby League Conference |
| Ground | "Storm Park", Streatham-Croydon RFC, Croydon |
| Official website | www.stormrl.com |
The South London Storm Rugby League Club is a Rugby league club based at Streatham-Croydon RFC in Thornton Heath, in the London Borough of Croydon. Storm have been voted "RLC Club of the Year" twice, in 2002 and 2005.
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[edit] Club History
The South London area has a strong Rugby League tradition, and many of London’s most successful amateur clubs have come from this part of the capital. For nearly three decades clubs such as Streatham Celtic, Peckham Pumas and South London Warriors dominated the London Amateur League, and between them they won the title over twenty times. Sadly, the mid-1990s heralded the demise of these once dominant clubs leaving the league without a club south of the river. To fill this void the current South London club was formed in the summer of 1997 by Jed Donnelly, Graeme Harker and Julian Critchley. Nicknamed 'the Saints', the fledgling club recruited many of its players from the recently defunct East London, Bexleyheath and Peckham outfits.
Saints were immediately accepted into the London Amateur Rugby League, and in their debut season they finished a creditable third in the Second Division behind Kingston and St Albans Centurions. That 1997/98 season culminated in an appearance in the Gordon Anderton Memorial Trophy Final against Reading Raiders at the New River Stadium. The 24-28 was a cruel blow for a team that were considered to have enjoyed the better of the game, but two controversial Raiders’ tries in the closing two minutes sealed Saints’ fate.
The 1998/99 season was one that promised much for Saints but, due to the near collapse of the league, that potential was largely unfulfilled, although South London did eventually emerge from the debris as runners-up to the London Colonials. A second successive appearance in the Gordon Anderton Memorial Trophy Final again ended in defeat (28-32), this time at the hands of a strong Metropolitan Police team.
With the prospect of winter Rugby League looking increasingly forlorn, South’s thoughts turned to the new summer competition, the Rugby League Conference. The name of the club was changed to South London Storm and an application to join the RLC was submitted in November 1999. Three months later the club was accepted into the Southern Division of the ever expanding and successful competition.
It was a real baptism of fire for 'Storm' in the RLC, as they managed only a single win – away at Kingston – to finish bottom of their group. Despite suffering a number of maulings (including a 2-100 loss at the hands of Crawley Jets), enthusiasm never waned and the club did much to raise the profile of the sport in this corner of the capital. Amazingly, Storm’s season ended with an appearance in the London Amateur Rugby League Cup Final against St Albans Centurions. But once again Storm were left frustrated as the Hertfordshire side emerged victorious from a gripping encounter.
[edit] 2001
2001 was a much improved year for the club and, although they won only three of their matches, Storm were a much more competitive outfit, as narrow losses to the West London Sharks and North London Skolars proved. The trio of wins (against Bedford Swifts, Crewe Wolves and Kingston Warriors) all came in the second half of the season, after an opening sequence of six successive losses.
[edit] 2002
2002 was the season when South London finally started to fulfil their potential. New Zealander Anthony Lipscombe took up the coaching reigns, and brought about a steady improvement to the team’s performances on the park. Storm’s pre-season preparation got off to a good start with a surprise success in the prestigious St Albans 9s Festival. Using a squad made up of mainly new players, they defeated their Centurion hosts quite comfortably in the Final. The regular season saw Storm suffer a succession of frustratingly narrow defeats – most by ten points or less – to finish bottom of the South Division, but it was in the end-of-season Shield Play Offs that saw the team hit form. Group wins over Kingston Warriors (28-22 and 36-4) and Oxford Cavaliers (21-12 in both games), took South London to Cheltenham’s Prince of Wales Stadium for a semi-final clash with Crewe Wolves. It was a tough encounter that for long periods looked to be going Wolves’ way, but Storm dug in to prevail 21-14, courtesy of two late tries from Carl Zacharow and Keri Ryan.
A fortnight later, also at the Prince of Wales Stadium, South London met Bedford Swifts in the Rugby League Conference Shield Final, where they treated the large crowd, and the Sky TV cameras, to an exhilarating display of running rugby. Storm ran in ten tries in a runaway 54-2 victory, Caro Wild led the way with a hat-trick, Daniel Poireaudeau grabbed two, and Terry Reader, Keri Ryan, Nathan Price-Saleh, Aaron Russell and Alun Watkins pitched in with one apiece. The final whistle sparked terrific celebrations both on the pitch and in the stand where Storm’s large travelling support cheered Keri Ryan as he lifted the club’s first ever major trophy.
Once again Storm fielded a second team in the London League, and although wins were hard to come by, only one all season, the players showed great enthusiasm with a number graduating to the first team. The season ended with the club’s first overseas tour. A party of 24 travelled to the south of France to play French National One club Realmont XIII. In front of a crowd of 750 – a quarter of the town’s population – Storm put up a brave performance, but were eventually downed 18-36.
To round off the club’s most successful season ever, Captain Keri Ryan was named at stand-off in the 2002 Rugby League Conference Dream Team, and full-back Corey Simms was named the competition’s Young Player Of The Year. Fittingly, the club was also presented with the award for Rugby League Conference Club of The Year 2002.
[edit] 2003
Buoyed by their success in the RLC Shield South London were encouraged to apply for membership of the newly formed National League Three. The application was successful, however, following a number of internal meetings the club reluctantly decided against taking the step up and instead remain in the RLC. However, only four weeks before the start of the season local rivals Crawley Jets folded, and Storm accepted the RFL's last minute invitation to participate in NL3. The club also entered a second team in the RLC, and employed the first full-time Rugby League Development Officer in the area, accelerating the junior development program started by volunteers in 2000. Under the South London Storm “umbrella” are the three junior feeder clubs formed – the Croydon Hurricanes, Thornton Heath Tornadoes, and the Brixton Bulls.
[edit] 2004
Storm again participated in National League Three and were awarded the Active Sports Club of the Year award from 400 participating sports clubs signed up to the Active Sports program, the biggest sports development program in London. The club also embarked on a historic tour to Australia – the first British Rugby League team to tour Australia since 1997. They narrowly missed out on the play-offs once more.
[edit] 2005
As the cost of travelling to places as far afield as Carlisle and Gateshead began to spiral, Storm took the decision to apply for, andwere admitted to, the newly created RLC Premier League for the 2005 season and appointed Rob Powell as Director of Coaching. The season proved to be a success with the club winning its first round Challenge Cup match and the first team winning all but one game during the season.
The team lost in the national semi-final against Bridgend, the competition’s eventual winners, but the season ended on a high by beating the other 85 clubs to the RLC club of the year award for 2nd time in 4 years.
[edit] 2006
The 2006 summer season was to be the most successful for South London Storm as a club, with both senior teams winning their leagues, successes for the 4 Storm youth clubs, and the first team being crowned RLC National Champions.
Despite pressure from the Ipswich Rhinos, Storm once again won the South division of the RLC Premier. After disposing of the Bridgend team in the semi-final, they crushed the East Lancashire Lions in the final at Broadstreet RUFC by 30 points to nil. This rounded off a successful season that included the London League title for the second team.
[edit] Club Honours
- Harry Jepson Trophy (RLC National Champions): Winners 2006
- RLC Club Of The Year: 2002, 2005
- RLC Shield: Winners 2002
- Active Sports Club Of The Year Award: 2004
- RLC Premier South: Winners 2005, Winners 2006
- London Amateur Rugby League (2nd XIII): Winners 2006
