Sunday 8 May dawned cold but bright. Good playing conditions for the first Royal Kingston District 5-a-side competition. I was one of an organising team who'd been working on it over a period of about three months, and this was the culmination of those efforts. Believe it or not, by this time we'd spent over £100 on copying certificates, and countless hours on planning out the games and organisation of it. We had to change the original format we envisaged as with 16 teams having entered, we needed to run the league section of the competition in four groups rather than two leagues. A major problem became apparent about 25 minutes before the kick-off - a team that we hadn't received an entry slip from were on the ground and preparing to play. All those programmes went to the wall, as after looking at options, we set about trying to accomodate a 17th team. With the co-operation of the team managers in the group affected (for which we'd like to record our thanks here) we re-configured the match order and played the extra few games needed.

The four groups finished their league section and the top two teams in each group went forward to the knockout stage. The games got really exciting from here on, with at least two matches needing to be decided by a "golden goal". None of the teams involved deserved to lose: it's just the nature of the game. The final also needed to be decided by a golden goal, which the Berrylands team scored after a tense final that lasted almost 50% longer than it was intended to. The emotions that make professional football compulsive were seen here in miniature with elation and disappointment clearly in evidence. It is a shame that there has to be a team that leaves empty-handed after such a close and well-fought match - in the case 4th Tolworth. 1st Surbiton Dolphin were placed 3rd and 2nd Malden Montem 4th.
Bob Bushell presented certificates to the players on all the teams and congratulated them all on making the competition a memorable event.