Growing up and growing out of it

Premier champions in 1989 and five-time runners-up to Eastleigh Conservatives in the 1990s, Hythe refuse to draft in heavyweights to lift them from a mid-table position.

In fact, they will only promote from in-house.

Veteran Brian Price, the only team member not to have progressed through the club’s junior ranks, fluked the pink to clinch a 6-4 home win over Park Gate RBL A.

Instead of the customary “can I buy you a drink?”, Price, 71, asked his opponent, Joe Bridle, “how many drinks would you like?”.

Between 1992 and 1996, Price worked in Newport, Wales. During a short trip back to Hampshire in 1994, he was telephoned by Chris Weir and asked to play in the Burroughes & Watts Team final at the now defunct 147 club in Southampton.

“I didn’t even know where my cue was,” recalled Price.

With the score tied at two apiece, Price beat City Transport captain Terry Azor in the decider.

Park Gate have themselves seen better times. Four-time Premier champions between 1998 and 2004, Steve Cole’s side have since lost Bobby Cooper and Colin Norton.

In the first match of this season at Shirley Social A, they fielded just two players – and lost 8-2.

Cole, 40, a keen advocate of the ‘miss’ rule, has one foot in the pro-super league camp while Crotty is dead against.

Crotty said: “If we are in the top eight, then so be it. We’re actually quite happy not being in the top eight. We’re more of a family team; we like a night out.

“We know we’re not going to win the league with the team we’ve got. The super league for us is too serious; too much about winning; it takes the enjoyment away.

“We are the team we are. We are Hythe.”