South London Storm was a rugby league club who played and trained at Archbishop Lanfranc School in the London Borough of Croydon. They competed in the London and South East Merit League.
Founded in 1997, Storm were voted Rugby League Conference "Club of the Year" three times, in 2002, 2005 and 2006.
In 2013, South London Storm merged with West London Sharks to form South West London Chargers.
Club Details & Personnel
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 BBC London Amateur Sports Club of the Year: 2006 RLC Premier South Division Winners: 2005, 2006, 2009 RLC Premier South Division Runners Up: 2007, 2008 RLC Premier South Grand Final Winners: 2005, 2006 RLC Premier South Grand Final Runners Up: 2007, 2008, 2009 London Academy Final: Winners 2009 London Amateur Rugby League (2nd XIII): Winners 2006 Gordon Anderton Memorial Trophy: Runners Up 1997–98, 1998–99 London League Cup: Runners Up 2000 Rugby League Challenge Cup: 2nd Round 2005
Player Records Most Tries in a match: 6 Mark Nesbitt vs Aberavon Fighting Irish - 2003 Most Goals in a match: 17 Tom Bold vs Bedford Tigers - 2009 Most Points in a match: 38 Darren Bartley vs Kent Ravens - 2007 Most Tries in a season: 28 Louis Neethling - 2005 Most Goals in a season: 102 Louis Neethling - 2005 Most Points in a season: 316 Louis Neethling - 2005 Most First Grade Appearances: 102 Carl Zacharow - (2002–present)
Club Records Most Points Scored: 102 vs Bedford Tigers - 2009 Most Points Conceded: 100 vs Crawley Jets - 2000 & West London Sharks - 2002 Biggest Home Win: (90 points) 94–4 vs London Skolars - 2005 & 102–12 vs Bedford Tigers - 2009 Biggest Away Win: (72 points) 76–4 vs Sunderland Nissan - 2005 & Greenwich Admirals - 2005 Biggest Home Defeat: (90 points) 0–90 vs London Skolars - 2001 Biggest Away Defeat: (98 points) 2–100 vs Crawley Jets - 2000 Highest Scoring Game: 114 points vs Bedford Tigers (102–12) - 2009 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
Coaches Julian Critchley - 1997–98 Ian Curzon - 1998–99 Julian Critchley & Graeme Harker - 2000 Paul Johnstone - 2001 Andy Fleming - 2001 Julian Critchley & Graeme Harker - 2001 Anthony Lipscombe - 2002 Darryl Pitt - 2003 & 2004 Rob Powell - 2005 & 2006 Andy Gilvary & Dave Wilson - 2007 Marcus Tobin - 2008 James Massara - 2009 Paul Brown - 2011 Ben Cramant & Mick Gray - 2012
Former Players Now At Pro Clubs Will Sharp - Harlequins RL Lamont Bryan - Harlequins RL Corey Simms - London Skolars Adam Janowski - Harlequins RL Rob Powell - Harlequins RL (assistant coach) Alex Ingarfield - Harlequins RL Jack Kendall - England under 18 England deaf London Irish RFU - Dewsbury Rams RL.
First Grade Playing Record - 2000 to 2011 Up to and including 2 July 2011. CompetitionYearsPldWDLFA Rugby League Conference 2000–2002 34 6 0 28 521 1757 Rugby League Conference Play Offs 2002 6 6 0 0 179 66 Rugby League Conference Cup 2003 8 4 1 3 229 143 National League 3 2003–2004 33 14 1 18 764 862 Rugby League Conference Premier 2005–2011 80 54 1 25 3234 1854 Rugby League Conference Premier Play Offs 2005–2009 12 8 0 4 400 188 Challenge Cup 2004, 2005, 2007 4 1 0 3 70 164 Total 2000 - 2011 177 93 3 81 5387 4934
OpponentsPldWDLFA Aberavon Fighting Irish 1 1 0 0 44 10 Bedford Swifts 3 2 0 1 86 46 Bedford Tigers 1 1 0 0 102 12 Birmingham Bulldogs 2 2 0 0 56 46 Bradford Dudley Hill 2 1 0 1 18 57 Bramley Buffaloes 2 1 0 1 44 52 Bridgend Blue Bulls 2 1 0 1 50 46 Carlisle Centurions 1 1 0 0 36 16 Castleford Lock Lane 1 0 0 1 24 50 Coventry Bears 6 3 0 3 142 162 Crawley Jets 6 0 0 6 48 456 Crewe Wolves 3 2 0 1 66 66 East Lancashire Lions 1 1 0 0 30 0 Elmbridge Eagles (Kingston Warriors) 14 11 0 3 612 262 Essex Eels 3 3 0 0 176 38 Gateshead Storm 1 1 0 0 32 20 Greenwich Admirals 4 4 0 0 200 30 Hainault Bulldogs 4 3 0 1 184 94 Haringey Hornets 2 2 0 0 68 58 Hammersmith Hillhoists 3 0 0 3 56 118 Hemel Stags 4 2 0 2 66 116 Huddersfield Underbank Rangers 2 1 1 0 48 40 Ipswich Rhinos/Eastern Rhinos 16 10 0 6 526 307 Kent Ravens 2 2 0 0 140 2 Luton Vipers 1 1 0 0 68 4 Manchester Knights 2 2 0 0 70 14 London Skolars 21 10 1 10 665 670 Oxford Cavaliers 6 2 0 4 112 248 Portsmouth Navy Seahawks 5 4 0 1 278 118 St Albans Centurions 17 4 0 13 324 546 Sheffield Hillsborough Hawks 4 1 0 3 90 119 Sunderland Nissan 2 2 0 0 148 10 Teesside Steelers 1 0 0 1 32 36 Thornhill Trojans 1 0 0 1 18 58 Woolston Rovers (Warrington) 2 0 0 2 18 76 West Bowling 1 0 0 1 4 36 West London Sharks 28 12 1 15 712 903
Second Grade Playing Record - 2003 to 2011 Up to and including 2 July 2011.
CompetitionYearsPldWDLFA Rugby League Conference 2003–2005, 2010 26 1 0 25 342 1401 London League 2006–2009, 2011 35 16 1 18 1131 1167 London League Play Offs 2006–2009 5 2 0 3 154 142 Total 2003–2009 63 18 1 44 1509 2618
OpponentsPldWDLFA Bedford Tigers 3 2 0 1 86 46 Crawley Jets 2 0 0 2 6 176 Elmbridge Eagles (Kingston Warriors) 7 0 0 7 72 429 Farnborough Falcons 1 0 0 1 28 40 Feltham YOI 1 1 0 0 64 52 Gosport Vikings 4 0 0 4 50 172 Greenwich Admirals 6 1 0 5 62 270 Guildford Giants 3 2 0 2 80 104 Hammersmith Hills Hoists 3 0 0 3 40 178 Haringey Hornets 2 0 0 2 30 98 Hemel Stags 5 2 0 3 146 128 Kent Ravens 4 3 0 1 188 112 Kentish Tigers 1 1 0 0 33 24 London Griffins 1 0 0 1 22 38 London Skolars 2 0 0 2 24 138 Luton Vipers 2 1 0 1 58 74 Met Police 1 0 0 1 26 34 Mudchute Uncles 1 0 0 1 0 28 Oxford Cavaliers 1 1 0 0 40 24 Phantoms RL 1 1 0 0 70 4 Smallford Saints 2 1 0 1 80 58 Southampton Spitfires 3 2 0 1 108 76 Southend Seaxes 1 1 0 0 40 14 Southgate Skolars 3 1 0 2 48 113 Swindon St George 1 1 0 0 98 0 St Albans Centurions 4 1 0 3 100 88 Sussex Merlins 4 2 0 2 156 146 West London Sharks 14 2 1 11 348 670
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 League, and between them they won the title over twenty times. The mid-1990s heralded the demise of these once dominant clubs leaving the league without a club south of the Thames.
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 21 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, and they approached the local rugby union club, Streatham-Croydon, about basing themselves at their Frant Road ground. Storm's original colours were red and black.
London League Saints were immediately accepted into the London League, and in their debut season they finished 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,Beyond the Heartlands – The History of the Rugby League Conference by Julian Harrison ( London League Publications Ltd) 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. For the club's switch to summer in 2000 the colours were changed to maroon.
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 League Final against St Albans Centurions. But once again Storm were left frustrated as the Hertfordshire side emerged victorious from a gripping encounter. A member of Storm's team that day, and Man of the Match, was Ryan Jones who went on the play for and captain the Welsh rugby union team, and who was a member of the tour to New Zealand.
The club made sporting history in October when the under-11s 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 rugby league at union's headquarters and Storm's Mark Cole, cousin of England footballer Joe Cole, scored the first ever try at the stadium and Rob Harker scored the first ever hat-trick of tries.
South London Storm was still operating, albeit as a Masters XIII, as recently as 2014, playing 1/2 fixtures a year
In 2017 they moved into Club Langley and played under the moniker of ‘Silverbacks’ for 3 seasons, during which a historic first ever Masters Tour to Canada was undertaken in June 2019
The first ever transatlantic Masters game between a UK Masters team against the Toronto Wolfpack Masters team at the Lamport stadium, followed by a further match against the Ontario Greybeards two days later
As is the nomadic existence of Rugby League in south London, we move onto the next chapter of the South London Storm - the South London Clippers Masters, playing out of Greenwich from 2020
Season's Record First Grade
Rugby League Conference South
06/05/2000 South London Storm 4 Oxford Cavaliers 62 13/05/2000 West London Sharks 60 South London Storm 6 20/05/2000 Crawley Jets 100 South London Storm 2 27/05/2000 South London Storm 24 Kingston Warriors 26 03/06/2000 South London Storm 8 St Albans Centurions 58 10/06/2000 South London Storm 8 North London Skolars 78 17/06/2000 Oxford Cavaliers 72 South London Storm 0 24/06/2000 South London Storm 0 West London Sharks 68 01/07/2000 South London Storm 6 Crawley Jets 90 08/07/2000 Kingston Warriors 16 South London Storm 24 15/07/2000 St Albans Centurions 50 South London Storm 10 22/07/2000 North London Skolars 70 South London Storm 14
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2001