South London Storm
| File:Stylized Lightning Bolt and Rugby Ball | |
| Club information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | South London Storm Rugby League Club |
| Colours | Maroon and White |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Website | www.stormrl.com |
| Current details | |
| Ground(s) |
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| Competition | Rugby League Conference |
South London Storm is a rugby league club who play and train at Streatham-Croydon RFC in Thornton Heath, in the London Borough of Croydon. Founded in 1997, Storm have been voted "RLC Club of the Year" three times, in 2002, 2005 and 2006.
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 on 21 July 1997 by Jed Donnelly, Graeme Harker and Julian Critchley in a bar after London Broncos' World Club Championship victory against Canberra Raiders on 21st July 1997. Initially nicknamed 'the Saints', as one of the founder members was a supporter of St Helens, the fledgling club recruited many of its players from the recently defunct East London, Bexleyheath and Peckham outfits.
London League
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.
It was in February 1999 that the club launched its junior section, initially at U11 only. The bulk of the youngsters came from the neighbouring Whitehorse Manor School where Saints scrum-half Lee Mason-Ellis was a teacher. They made their competitive debut two months later against Kingston Warriors, at the time the only other junior club in the capital, losing narrowly in an exciting encounter.
For the seniors, 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 as there were two other teams known as 'the Saints' in the Conference. Three months later the club was accepted into the Southern Division of the expanding competition.
2000
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. The season opener at home to Oxford Cavaliers (4-62) was covered by the Independent newspaper. 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.
The club made sporting history in October when the U11s played their counterparts from Kingston Warriors in the curtain raiser to the England vs Australia Rugby League World Cup clash at Twickenham. It was the first ever game of League at union's headquarters and Storm's Mark Cole, cousin of England footballer John Cole, scored the first ever try at the stadium.
| RLC | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 50 | 382 |
| Away | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 56 | 368 |
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 and got better as the year progressed, as narrow losses to the West London Sharks and North London Skolars proved towards the end of the season. The trio of wins, against Bedford Swifts (22-6), Crewe Wolves (20-16) and Kingston Warriors (46-10) all came in the second half of the season, after an opening sequence of six successive losses including a 6-100 drubbing at the hands of West London.
The season was notable for scrum-half Terry Reader's individual achievement of successfully kicking 29 successive conversions.
| RLC | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 96 | 263 |
| Away | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 111 | 292 |
2002
2002 was the season when South London finally started to fulfil their potential. New Zealander Anthony Lipscombe took up the coaching reins, 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.
| RLC | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 122 | 198 |
| Away | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 86 | 254 |
| Play Offs | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 56 | 16 |
| Away | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 34 |
| Neutral | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 16 |
2003
Buoyed by their success in the RLC Shield, Storm 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.
Coached by ex-London Broncos player Darryl Pitt, the club opened their league campaign with an against-the-odds 24-16 victory over Huddersfield Underbank Rangers. It was a win that was all the more remarkable for the fact that they were down to 12 men after only 5 seconds; prop Mick Smith having been sent off in the first tackle. Storm registered a further five wins in the season but missed out on the end of season play-offs.
The club made a second tour to France in September, losing 22-48 against a Salses line up containing three ex-French internationals.
In November Storm played a charity match against an Australian Legends of League side including the likes of Jason Hetherington, Trevor Gillmeister, Craig Coleman, Andrew Farrar and Peter Tunks. Both teams served the enthusiastic crowd of three or four hundred with an exciting end-to-end contest played in a manner befitting the occasion. The result was irrelevant; although for the record the score was 24-20 in favour of the Legends.
In 2003 Storm were represented at International level for the first time when U15 player Adam Janowski was selected to play for England U15s against their Welsh counterparts at Easter.
| NL3 | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 154 | 166 |
| Away | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 120 | 198 |
2004
Storm again participated in National League Three and after victories in their opening three games, against Manchester, Bradford Dudley Hill and Birmingham, they topped the division for the one and only time. However, after the promising start, the season tailed off and once again Storm narrowly missed out on the play-offs. During the year Storm 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 - with games against Beerwah Bulldogs and Gympie Devils in the Sunshine Coast area of Queensland.
In November Storm played their first ever Challenge Cup game when they hosted National Conference side West Bowling in the Preliminary Round, losing 4-36.
The season closed with a second tour of the year, this time to Toulouse, where they drew 22-22 against Villeneuve Tolosane.
| NL3 | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 9* | 5 | 0 | 4 | 244 | 208 |
| Away | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 246 | 290 |
- Home match versus Warrington Woolston Rovers abandoned due to an injury.
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, and were 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 against West London Sharks (24-20) in front of a crowd of 1,000. However, Powergen Challenge Cup run came to an end in the second round when they were beaten 50-24 at Castleford Lock Lane, despite having surprising led at half-time.
During the RLC Premier campaign the first team dominated the southern group and won 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 the 2nd time in 4 years.
| RLCP | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 5* | 5 | 0 | 0 | 346 | 30 |
| Away | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 318 | 74 |
- Luton Vipers forfeit a fixture
| Play offs | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 94 | 14 |
| Neutral | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 34 |
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 who defeated Luton Vipers in the Final.
| RLCP | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 290 | 108 |
| Away | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 172 | 130 |
| Play offs | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 10 |
| Neutral | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 62 | 12 |
2007
After the success of the previous season, 2007 was always going to be a tough year. Coach Rob Powell moved on to Super League's Harlequins RL, and was replaced by Andy Gilvary and Dave Wilson. Meanwhile ten of the Grand Final winning team moved on to pastures new.
| RLCP | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 264 | 123 |
| Away | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 236 | 127 |
| Play Offs | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 24 |
| Neutral | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 18 |
2008
| RLCP | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 272 | 108 |
| Away | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 138 | 158 |
| Play Offs | Pld | W | D | L | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 14 |
| Away | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 24 |
Club Honours
- Harry Jepson Trophy (RLC National Champions): Winners 2006
- RLC Club Of The Year: 2002, 2005, 2006
- 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
Player Records
- Most Tries in a match: Mark Nesbitt 6 vs Aberavon Fighting Irish - 2003
- Most Goals in a match: Louis Netthling 11 vs London Skolars & Ipswich Rhinos - 2005
- Most Points in a match: Louis Neethling 34 vs Ipswich Rhinos - 2005
- Most Tries in a season: Louis Neethling 28 - 2005
- Most Goals in a season: Louis Neethling 102 - 2005
- Most Points in a season: Louis Neethling 316 - 2005
- Most Appearances: Carl Zacharow (2002 - 2008)
Club Records
- Most Points Scored: 94 vs London Skolars - 2005
- Most Points Conceded: 100 vs Crawley Jets - 2000 & West London Sharks - 2002
- Biggest Home Win: 94-4 vs London Skolars - 2005
- Biggest Away Win: 76-4 vs Sunderland Nissan - 2005 & Greenwich Admirals - 2005
- Biggest Home Defeat: 0-90 vs London Skolars - 2001
- Biggest Away Defeat: 2-100 vs Crawley Jets - 2000
- Highest Scoring Game: 106 points vs West London Sharks (6-100) - 2002
- Lowest Scoring Game: 22 vs Ipswich Rhinos (18-4) - 2007
- Longest Undefeated Run: 14 games - 24 June 2006 to 30 June 2007
- Longest Run Without a Win: 9 games - 6 May 2000 to 1 July 2000
Dream Team
To mark Storm's 10th Anniversary the club announced their 1997-2007 Dream Team.
Tane Kingi (2005–2007)
Corey Simms (2002–2004)
Keri Ryan (2001–2006)
Carl Zacharow (2001–2007)- Gavin Calloo (2001–2006)
- Michael Walker (2005–2007)
- Terry Reader (2001–2002)
- Gavin Hill (2005–2007)
Mark Nesbitt (2002–2006)- Koben Katipa (2003–2004)
- Alan Emerson (2006–2007)
Louis Neethling (2004–2005)- Paul Rice (2003–2004)
- Andrew Hames (2003–2007)
- Nick Byram (2000–2004)
- John Ferguson (2003–2005)
- Julian Critchley (1997–2000)
- Coach: Rob Powell (2005-2006)
- Manager: Steve Cook (2002-2007)
Former Players Now At A Professional Club
- Will Sharp - Harlequins RL
- Lamont Bryan - Harlequins RL
- Corey Simms - London Skolars
- Adam Janowski - Harlequins RL