Going into the last game, the men had a slim chance of promotion and a larger chance of relegation. Promotion would require us to score at least 42 points to overhaul Ivybridge and, additionally, 9 points more than Hill Lane who would be playing at the same time. To add to the difficulty we were playing top of the table St Budeaux who still needed some points (8 to be exact) to be certain of finishing first.
Players, Ivybridge on the left, one of whom has left without us noticing. Plymstock left to right: Tim, Phil, Steve, Adam.
We had done the arithmetic of the relegation battle a couple of days before. The bottom two were to go down and St Mellion were well adrift of safety. Tavistock were 45 points behind us in next to last 5th place. It is possible to score 72 points each match and so 28 points would be enough.
Things changed a day before when we received an email saying Whiteford Road had been expelled from the league for failing to field a side twice. They were in division 3 but the effects rippled down the league and it looked like only one team would be relegated from our division 4.
Just before playing we decided that promotion was an unlikely prospect and avoiding relegation was the priority. We also decided that the Whiteford Road reprieve was not to be relied upon. So to increase our chance of enough points we paired the two strongest players. We will never know for sure but perhaps this was the right decision, Tim and Steve getting two sets against their number one pair and one set against the second pair, totalling 26 points. Phil and Adam also had a job to do and gained two points for our total.
Score thus St Budeaux 56: Plymstock 28.
Assuming our arithmetic is correct, promotion not achieved and relegation avoided, probably in 4th place.