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Ok so the time is upon us, the pointless summer division is over and the real teams and players and back in the rightful places and in some cases have jumped ships in search of silverware!

From what I can see there has been little movement of players between teams, either that or teams are keeping their cards cloose to their chests. All of the summer hype is over and accusations of player robbing and cradle snatching will soon be committed to the Croydon pool memory bank.

Ok so my initial thoughts are that this season the First division is weaker than last year. We have lost the legion, pond wheatsheaf & Pwleyne and have been replaced with Bloodhounds, SAS and Cuesmasters. I personally think after having played the Bloods and beaten them convincingly they are not in the same calibre as the pond and legion. Then there is the cuemasters, even before the league has started they have split in to two teams and are already at the bare bones relying on unreliable players from last year from the offset and with not as many to choose from.

Then you must consider the Rack Pack I have heard rumours the top teams have been snatching their best player/players put all this in the equation and it is my belief that this season is weaker than what was probably the stongest ever croydon div one league last season.

So here are my predictions team by team

Hot Shots
They seemed to have proven in their last 3 campaigns (including the summer leagues) that they are now the new team to beat. They have undoubtedly a great squad and me thinks that only a lack of desire to win it again after winning it last year could prevent them at very least taking it to the wire again

Final Standing 2nd

Eagles
Personally I dont see much difference in the squads of the top two teams however last season the eagles underachieved I am sure they would agree. From speaking to a few of em last year it seemed a bit of the desire had gone so hopefully this year we will see it back in place as they start this season for the first time in years as the underdogs.

Final standing 1st

Propeller
It is hard to know whether the Propeller consider themselves as titel contenders any more or not. For years they were the team that was competing until the end with the Eagles but now it seems they have slipped in to a team who finishes third and has a go at the cups. From my point of view they are our bogey team and still remain the only team we have never beaten but the Prop don't hold the fear they once did with other teams.

Final Standing 3rd

Drillers
Copy and paste from last year - have the talent and on their day can beat anyone but can they hold a team of 6 together for a seaon. History says categorically not and you have to wonder how many more seasons the loyal drillers will want to carry on for. Maybe a challenge in the Cups

Final Standing 6th

Rileys Rack Pack
I have heard rumours of their best players being robbed from them. If this is true I dont think they have the strength in depth to maintain what was undoubtedly a fantastic season for them last year. Having said that they will always have access to good players playing from where they do so may strengthen. It is true however that once the surprise factor from the first season goes it can get tougher then next time around

Final standing 8th

Coney Cues
Start their 8th season I believe with pretty much the same squad as last year asides from the welcome re-introduction of our founding father Luke "Mavis" davis. The boys are up for it this year and as always will enjoy it as if it was going to be our last season. No surprises from the Coney boys just a reafirmed belief that we will continue to improve season on season.

Final Standing 4th

Eden
A good signing in Barry for sure and after having seen first hand how the likes of Alex can play it is a mystery how these boys seem to lose their form bottle or willpower when it comes to pulling it together as a team in the winter. Team play is not about betting, making money and being mercenaries so they will need to put their words in to actions and step up to the plate. The Gauntlet has been layed down so lets see it followed up. They will of course hope to win another "yawn" knockout cup but in reality will be gunning for the Beckenham ashes.

Final Standing 5th

Hogs head/patriots/copperfield/victory/twobrewers
The fact is that only a miracle series fo results has kept this team in division one for the past two seasons however credit where it is due they have performed when it really mattered under pressure. If you take this fact alone and as long as they can get a side out regularly they are well capable this season on improving on last season. Defo stay up this year as their are worst teams.

Final Standing 9th

Unpredictables
Again performed when it mattered at the back end of last year but I think basically pulled out their big players to keep em up. Again being where they are in Croydon are more likely to pick up new players and will need to, to avoid a repeat of last years massive under achievement. Not sure what signings they have made.

Final standing 7th

Cuemasters
Was looking forward to these boys coming up to strengthen the division however it looks like they are destined for the drop again as they have split in to two teams. They have access to some quality snooker players that generally make a good transition however if the rumours are true it sounds a bit like the season before when they went down. shortage of players leading to the drop

Final standing 11th

SAS
Have played them in the league cup and was pretty impressed however we played them with our b team and still won. You can't write of the complete newbies to div one as their desire to prove people wrong will add ten points to theri season (see rack pack from Last year) To be fair I know very little about this team and it probably wrong for me to write them off but they lost a lot of div two games which doesn't bode well for div one. From memory they have a great team spirit so they may yet prove us wrong

Final standing 10th

Have proved in the past they can get results in the league cup etc. Again I know very little about them but again they only just scrapped up to div one. Good luck to em but..........

Final standing 12th

League Cup Champions:
Hot Shots

League Cup final
Propeller V Hot Shots

League Cup Semi
Propleller V Eagles
Hot Shots V Coney

Knockout cup champs
Coney

Singles Winner
Rod Altes

Doubles Winner
?

Rankings
Rod Altes

and that is that