Post date: 22-May-2019 23:47:40
The dust has settled on a season in which our teams were hard pressed to cling on to last year's gains. This time last year, Cowley was celebrating promotions for two teams. Unsurprisingly, our newly formed Cowley 5 team, consisting largely of players drawn from the former Cowley Workers third-division team, percolated back into third division where it surely belonged. But nobody had predicted that Cowley 4 would win its division by a fluke, squeaking up into third division, where it might well find itself out of its depth. So it was that the club entered the current season with two teams in Division 1, two in Division 2, and one each in Divisions 3 and 4.
By unfortunate coincidence, four of Cowley's strongest players left the club just then, requiring a shuffle-up. The upshot was that Cowley 1-4 were distinctly overstretched, and it looked doubtful whether all these teams could be maintained in top divisions. Something was likely to give way. As it turned out, that something was Cowley 3.
The team fought bravely throughout the season, led by their determined captain, Bob Waugh, but finished at the bottom by just a couple of points and are now due for relegation.
The other Cowley teams achieved decent results, all things considered. Cowley 1 and Cowley 2 took 4th and 6th place in Division 1. Cowley 4 came 5th in Division 2, and Cowley 5 came 5th in Division 3. Our development team, Cowley 6, came last in Division 4 but did accumulate a respectable 7 points, racking up plenty of good experience along the way. New captain Duncan Young had his hands full, ably organising games for 18 people this year.
Next season we'll have two teams in Division 1, one in Division 2, two in Division 3, and one in Division 4. That should suit us very well. A number of new members have arrived at the club recently, many of whom would fit neatly into third division where we now have two teams. After a bit of a rest, we'll be all set for next year!