In what may be a first for the Thames Valley League, Kingston have been crowned champions of the knockout cup without having to take on a rival in the final. Harrow and Richmond had been due to contest a semi-final to determine who would meet us in the final, but communications seem to have broken down between the clubs and the match never took place.
The Thames Valley season has now been concluded, leaving no time for their semi, let alone a final against Kingston, and the league has decided to award Kingston the trophy. Congratulations to Kingston’s successful TVKO captain Alan Scrimgour (pictured), though naturally he would have preferred to get his hands on the silverware after a proper contest.
The win by default means that Kingston have completed (for the third time in four seasons) a clean sweep of all four major Surrey League and Thames Valley League titles – the Surrey Trophy (Surrey League Div 1), the Alexander Cup (Surrey League 10-board knockout), Thames Valley Div 1 and the Thames Valley knockout.
It has been a period of extraordinary domination by Kingston in the local leagues. We also won the Thorpe Trophy (Surrey team rapidplay) and the Beaumont Cup (Surrey League Div 2) this season, and our 4NCL partnership with CSC saw our first team finish second in the top division – another mighty performance.
There were too many fine individual performances by Kingston players to enumerate them all, but we must note the showing of some of our more senior members in the John Hawson Trophy, the Surrey League competition for over-60s awarded on the basis of best percentage score in Surrey league and cup matches. The trophy was shared by two revered Kingston players, Peter Large and Alan Scrimgour, with a 75% record, and, as the list below shows, there were three other Kingston players in the top six. Quite extraordinary. Even your own aged correspondent managed to break 50%. A memorable season all round. Let’s do it all again next year – if we still have the strength.
Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain
* To win the John Hawson Trophy, players must play a minimum of five Surrey games. The players marked in red in the list above all played at least five games.