The year began in lockdown and ends with renewed concern over social contact indoors and mass spectator gatherings. Covid-19 continues to cast its shadow. Nevertheless almost all forms of local sporting activity have enjoyed a recovery during the course of the year, and it’s a pleasure to recall some highs experienced both by individual players and their teams over the course of 2021. 

It’s also time to anticipate what looks like a species migration of team sports in Hastings as the town’s major football, cricket and hockey teams all prepare for moves to fresh homelands in 2022 or the following year.

Priory cricketers maintained their Premier league status

CRICKET

Sports story of 2021 was surely the transformation of Hastings and St Leonards Priory cricketers from no-hopers to triumphant survivors in what was almost certainly their last campaign at Horntye Park before their projected move to Claremont next year. Priory had been promoted into the Sussex Premier League after topping Division One in 2019. With the 2020 league season wiped out by Covid, the target for this year’s team, shorn of star all-rounder Elliott Hooper but boosted by the return of former batsman Harry Finch, released by the Sussex county team, and the recruitment of a young Sri Lankan, Dilshan De Zoysa, was to consolidate their promoted status.

First match in May was abandoned to rain; the second, at Middleton, was won narrowly after a stonking innings by Finch. The record for the next three months was dismal: eight defeats and two draws, then two more matches rain-abandoned. Either the batting collapsed or the bowling attack was taken apart, or both. Finch, who had scored a couple of centuries but also succumbed to several early dismissals, was recruited for the Kent county team in mid-July and did not return. Leading spin bowler Jed O’Brien also departed. By mid-August, with four matches left, relegation seemed inevitable.

All four were won. Rivals at the bottom, Haywards Heath, were bowled out for 94 on their own pitch, with wickets shared between Adam Barton, John Morgan and De Zoysa, and overhauled with the loss of only two wickets. Next up, Brighton & Hove were also skittled for 102, this time by De Zoysa and Adam Page; Priory lost nine wickets for 92, before last pair Morgan and Page scrambled a one wicket victory. The crucial match took place at Cuckfield, where the home team, now just below Priory in the league table, rattled up 239 for nine in their 50 overs, then reduced Priory to 44 for five. Even a brilliant partnership of 149 runs between captain Tom Gillespie and Will Hutchings seemed unlikely to save the day – or the season – only for Morgan to hit 37 not out off 20 deliveries, The Hastings side reaching the target with three wickets and just five balls to spare.

In probably the last ever game at Horntye, fittingly played against local rivals Eastbourne with a win still needed, the batsmen scored 214 including solid half centuries by Jake Woolley and Harry Scowen; the visitors, pegged back by tight bowling in particular from Barton and De Zoysa, managed only 168. Priory thus finished seventh out of ten in the league table, an outcome they would have taken with satisfaction at the beginning of the season.

HOCKEY

The move to Claremont will also involve hockey club South Saxons, now surely playing their last season on the artificial pitch at Horntye. Both men’s and ladies’ teams have been prospering in recent years, with healthy playing numbers and steady ascent of respective regional leagues. After post-Covid restructuring, the men find themselves these days in South East Division 1 East; the women in equivalent South East Division 1 West. 

For the men, goal-scoring rarely seems too much of a problem; keeping their own goal defended against speedy and technically proficient opponents at this level has been more challenging. Last Saturday, for instance, entertaining Holcombe, they looked to have secured a creditable 3-3 draw only to concede a decider in the last moments. Two weeks before, they chalked up a 7-5 home victory over Canterbury Pilgrims.

The ladies’ elevation to the western division involves them in lengthy travel itineraries – Guildford, Epsom and Woking are among their destinations. The campaign started with a series of defeats, including a 13-0 trouncing at Oxted, but a gritty 2-1 win against Eastbourne followed by a 0-0 draw at Horsham showed that they can compete at this level, and they lie tenth of 12 teams in the league table at mid-season. Alex Coombs, star of the men’s team, is their coach, and captain Kat Jenner says: “the team are training hard, fighting for survival, and are enjoying the new challenge the league has to offer.”

SNOOKER

Back in April Mark Davis of St Leonards produced what he considered the best comeback of his 30-year professional career to qualify for snooker’s Betfred World Championship, recovering from 7-2 down to pull off a stunning 10-8 victory over Jamie Clarke in the final qualifying round for the sport’s flagship event. 

In the first round proper Davis was drawn against seventh seed and 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy, and led 5-3 before his exalted opponent made a break of 114 and eventually sealed a 10–7 victory.

In November, Davis reached the last 16 of the 2021 English Open, after beating Lukas Kleckers (4-1), Graeme Dott (4-3) and Fergal O’Brien (4-1) along the way, before being edged out 4-3 by the eventual winner of the tournament, Neil Robertson.

DARTS

Rob Cross, former 2018 world champion from St Leonards, returned to the winner’s circle in October after he won his 4th PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) major at the 2021 European Darts Championship. Victory was secured after beating world number three Michael van Gerwen in the final 11-8. The win moved him back up to 11th in the PDC World Rankings.

Fellow local player Ritchie Edhouse qualified for the first time for this Championship, but it was always going to be difficult progressing to the next stage after being drawn against world number one Gerwyn Price in the first round. Edhouse lost the tie 6-2. 

Cross will be hoping to regain his world title at the 2022 PDC World Championship starting on 15 December, particularly after last year’s early exit from the competition. Edhouse has also qualified, and will be looking to better his previous run in the tournament in 2020 when he reached the second round, though Price will again stand in his way. 

TENNIS

As an outdoor non-contact sport played either one-on-one or two-on-two, tennis is an ideal game for moderate social distancing. No surprise, then, that both the Amherst club in Hastings and The Green in St Leonards have attracted additional members this year. Inter-club summer doubles competitions ran as normal, and the winter season is now in full swing.

Amherst’s top notch American coach Doug Keen departed back across the Atlantic, and there was also a changing of the guard within the ranks of playing members as 17-year-old Zak Prawanna replaced 60-something Jeff  Gedge as club singles champion. 

At The Green, Joe Adams led from the front as their men’s team were comfortable winners of their division of the Sussex Tennis League. 

Ben Pope in action for the ‘U’s at Chippenham
CREDIT: Scott White

FOOTBALL

Hastings United’s anticipated relocation from Pilot Field to Tilekiln has been held up by Covid and/or the slow manoeuvrings within the borough council’s planning department. Success on the field has largely continued, and been appreciated by returning crowds despite any health concerns; off the field, there have been bumps along the way.

Season 2020/21 was aban-doned with United unable to profit, for the second successive year, from their position at the top of the table:  promotion to the Isthmian Premier league was again denied. The current league season, still in the South East Division, started slowly with a draw at home to Herne Bay and defeat at Ramsgate, but the team then put together a run of eight successive victories including three in FA Cup-ties and two in the FA Trophy. 

A 1-0 victory away at National League side Chippenham Town in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup was particularly impressive, and the team headed for Maidenhead on 16t October with high hopes of making the first round proper. The 3-1 defeat there was no disgrace, and it was followed by two further league wins over Hythe Town and Phoenix Sports. Then came a five-day reversal of fortunes. 

On the evening of 26 October Hastings were leading Ashford United 1-0 into the second half (having already defeated the same opponents 2-0 in an FA Trophy tie at Pilot Field earlier in the month), but lost 3-1. Four days later, entertaining Felixstowe & Walton in the FA Trophy, they again led 1-0 and again lost 3-1. The next day, Sunday, manager Chris Agutter told CEO Billy Woods that he was quitting, bringing his four-year reign to an immediate end.

The reason which Agutter gave for his abrupt departure was that he needed “a new challenge, a fresh start”. And within a couple of weeks it emerged that he had obtained a fresh post as a youth coach with Stevenage Town. Wasn’t he bound by contract to stay at Hastings until 2023, having signed extended terms for this period only in January? Neither he nor Woods made any public reference to contractual obligations, though Woods admitted that he was left “disappointed” and “angry”. 

In any event United have made a new appointment from within their ranks, putting experienced central defender Gary Elphick in charge for the rest of the season. And after two or three weeks of turbulence, results seem to be stabilising. Last Saturday’s comfortable 5-0 win over East Grinstead Town was the fourth in five matches for the ‘U’s, elevating them to fifth place in the league, six points behind leaders Cray Valley. With over half the fixtures still to play, 2022 can still be their year.

The United women’s team in the meantime have continued to make strong progress. Six wins and a draw in their seven matches in the South Division of the London & South East Regional League (level six of the women’s football pyramid) have put them at the head of the table. Goals have not always been easy to come by, in fact four of the nine other teams in the league have scored as many or more; but Hastings have conceded just two all season so far. Only disappointment was a 2-0 defeat by Bromley in the Vitality FA Cup in October.

Hastings & Bexhill control a maul
CREDIT: Peter Knight

RUGBY

Hastings & Bexhill RFC have no plans to move from their Ark Alexandra base. After almost 18 months of effective hibernation they started the current season with a new head coach, Leslie Hunter, and a keen ambition to rule the roost of the Kent League. Early results were mixed, and Hunter was forced to resign due to family commitments and the pressure of a new teaching career. However, Steve “Saucie” McManus, a former first team captain, player for 27 years and coach in the club’s youth programme, has taken over. Many of the current squad are former members of his colts’ teams.

Now third in the league table, the first XV beat second-placed Old Williamsonians convincingly 32-14 last Saturday and look forward to hosting unbeaten leaders Park House in the first game back in the New Year.

Meanwhile the return of on-field activity has been grasped with relish throughout the club. The minis have been training on Sunday mornings under the leadership of Martin Sheppard and an army of volunteer coaches and administrators. After Christmas they return to their programme of festivals and tournaments within the very well-organised Sussex set-up. Juniors (12-17 years) have been training twice a week and playing regular fixtures throughout the season; several of their players have been selected for County training and taken into the Academy squads of Premiership teams Saracens and Harlequins.

The newly formed Ladies Section under the leadership of Bob Meager are training regularly and hope to start matches in the New Year.

Charlotte Wynne-Pennels vaulting at HAC
CREDIT: Hastings Athletics Club

ATHLETICS

Hastings Athletics Club’s base below Ark Alexandra is not under threat either, but the Luke Veness clubhouse, described by an insider as a previously outdated, dusty, unwelcoming space, has been renovated by club members with financial backing from business and community sponsors, to become a fresh club community hub. Membership has been overhauled with better deals for families.

On the track, international distance runner Grace Baker made her debut in the London Vitality Big Half (marathon) storming in at 79m, 12th woman overall. This was her first competitive race in the UK since returning from her sports scholarship in the USA 18 months ago. 

The club has performed strongest, though, at veteran level. Martyn Reynolds is now ranked 1st in the country for 2021 and 400m V40 and 15th of all time. Steve Baldock, who is the club’s sprint coach, is now ranked first in the country in 2021 for 800m V50 and 8th overall of all time. Assistant coach Wayne Martin is ranked 1st in the country for 2021 in the polevault and 21st overall of all time. 

The club had athletes at the London marathon, half marathons and 5k and 10k events across the country. It won the team competition at the Hastings Seafront 10km; Jenna Levett won the Battle 10k. Rae Le Fay, a stand-out under-15 runner has recently been selected to train with the Sussex endurance squad and will represent the county at the cross-country Inter-counties contest next week.

Meanwhile Hastings parkrun resumed in July this year along St Leonards seafront, and has been maintaining a healthy average of 270-300 runners each week.

Sarah Marzaioli of Hastings Runners was invited to participate in the London Marathon as part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors series. Just two weeks later, she posted a time of 4hrs 37mins in the Yorkshire marathon, winning her age group in what was the British Masters marathon championship event for this year. This puts her 10th in her age group for the UK rankings in 2021.

Will Withecombe, after warming up with several low key 5km race wins earlier in the summer, came first in both the Hastings Seafront 10k and the Woodchurch 5-mile event. Matt Edmonds, taking a break from his long-distance parkrun successes and ultra-events, added victory in the Beachy Head 10k event to his impressive CV.

PICTURE: Dave Young

He and his wife Lisa have brought up four daughters in England, and he says he will sorely miss their mix of family, pastoral and sporting life on the English south coast. But Lisa’s father needs family care at his home in Southern California, three of the daughters are already living there, and Doug says he believes he has been summoned back by God to start the next stage of his life.

He first came to Europe in his early 20s, playing satellite tournaments in France and Germany. He would spend the winters coaching in New Mexico to save enough money to play competitively over the summer – he would have liked to compete full-time on the pro circuit, but wasn’t quite good enough to make a living from it all year round. “I was like a League One footballer, not quite Premiership class,” he says.

Tennis in England

At county level in England, though, even in his 30s he was a fierce competitor, playing for the Yorkshire team that won the county championship at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne in 2003. Alongside him was Jonny Marray, later Wimbledon men’s doubles champion. After moving to Hastings he became a regular player for the Sussex senior team (over 35s); and at 50, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, he was still competing – and winning – for Amherst in both singles and doubles matches at the highest level of the Sussex club team league. 

The physical environment makes for notably different tennis conditions between the south-west states of the USA and Britain, Doug says. The high altitude of New Mexico and its scorching summer sun combine to produce very fast courts – “you have to be very quick, you string the racket tight, and the points don’t last long.” Southern California, where he will revert (at least in the short term) to full-time coaching, won’t be so high, but the temperatures will be the same or hotter.

He says he’ll miss the grass courts here – there aren’t any in Hastings, but he gets to play from time to time in Eastbourne. He also thinks that the artificial clay courts recently installed in Amherst are good surfaces for teaching the game in England. “They play well in the wet, holding a lot of water. They are slow, but young players can develop good footwork and smooth strokes.”

PICTURE: Dave Young

As for the culture of British tennis, he approves the “wonderful” attitudes of sports-manship and fair play. But he also detects a change over the last 15 years or so in the mindset of competitors, from accepting, as he puts it, the role of the ‘good loser’ to “we can win this thing” – a bit more American, perhaps. Andy Murray’s first win at Wimbledon in 2013 was a critical moment, he thinks.

For a full account of Doug Keen’s previous tennis career, conversion to Christianity and pathway to Christian ministry through New Mexico, Harrogate, York, and Hastings, see HIP 103 in June 2018: Tennis: keen on pleasing god.

His final appearance as tennis competitor in England is scheduled at Amherst next Saturday 23rd May, when he will be representing the home club in both singles and doubles matches in an Aegon Team Tennis fixture against Seaford starting at 2pm. His coaching role will continue until early June.

Amherst Pays Tribute

Sandra Goodsell, player:
Doug is a perfect coach, always professional with realistic expectations. His lessons are the highlight of my week. He brings together an eclectic group of people for an hour of pure enjoyment and escapism. The lessons are well structured and exhausting, with a different weekly focus and clear demonstrations. We all try the instructions with varying degrees of success, and always revert to our old bad habits for the competitive games at the end. Then we come off the court buzzing and determined to try out our newly learnt skills to improve our games. There is always fun and laughter on the court, which is sorely missing from our lives at the moment.  

Helen Almond, fellow coach: 
I will miss Doug. We didn’t always see eye to eye over holy matters, but we both turned the other cheek. After our first-ever religious discussion, I said that I hoped my views wouldn’t affect our working relationship, and he replied, “Helen, I knew you were a sinner the first time I saw you.” So funny – loved it. He never got me to the church, but we shared a lot of good laughs and also some magic moments when we found common ground. 

Tennis Doug is a total Pro – what a player, what a coach, and always on court with a light-up smile. He inspired so many people to take up tennis. Why is he going to America? Well, to help people, which is what he does. He can’t help it.

Pat Holmes, player:
There is a very special ethos around Doug, personal and professional. Returning home after my first coaching session with him, my daughter Sophie asked “How was it?” I replied: “Excellent coaching, but there was something quite extraordinary about Doug – a brightness shines out of his face.” Sophie smiled and nicknamed him ‘Saint Doug of Amherst’, and that is how he is affectionately known in our house. 

Brian Hallam, player:
Of Doug’s many skills on the court, the one I’ll remember most readily is his ability to nonchalantly pluck a fast-moving wayward ball out of the air with the tip of his racket. Not bouncing it off the strings, onto the floor and eventually into his pocket, like the rest of us. No, this is one movement, which you feel he could do with his eyes closed. His arm reaches upwards and comes down with the ball seemingly glued to the strings, before it ends up in his left hand with the other three he’s already holding; all the time passing helpful comments on the error in your stroke – the only proof his eyes were open. The whole sequence epitomises his effortless grace both on and off the court.

Peter Farthing, senior coach:
Doug has been a great addition to the coaching team, bringing a diversity of approach and opinion which, I believe, truly enriched the club. I was always amused by the curious incongruity of a priest behaving with such ferocity in the heat of battle. Doug showed no mercy when playing tennis for the Amherst men’s team – a sort of a Friar Tuck in the band of merry coaches (although it couldn’t be said that he was in the slightest bit rotund).

I shall miss his balls! Not his courage at fearlessly spreading the good word – his actual tennis balls. He marked them with a Christian cross, which I’ve never seen on a tennis court before. I was always amused that, being spherical, the cross was upside down half the time. Was he trying to tell us something? Did this turn tennis into a profound symbol of the eternal fight between good and evil? Whichever way you look at it, Doug always managed to spin it more often towards God.

Amherst club coach, Doug Keen, and local veteran international, Frances Candy, were first on the clay that morning. Over the following two and a half weeks, many members of both Amherst and The Green club (under a mile away in St Leonards) have returned to their respective courts, most very conscious of the need to regain fitness after weeks without any sporting activity if they haven’t been running, cycling or doing handstands in the garden in lieu.

Ross Cudmore in one-to-one session with junior at Amherst
PICTURE: Dave Young

In normal years Amherst’s season begins on 1st April, so although some members had already paid their full club subscriptions for the year ahead, many have also understandably held back. The club has stated that it intends to levy only a pro rata charge once “normal activities” are resumed – which may be when full doubles play is permitted. However, as a community amateur sports club leasing rateable premises, it qualified for – and has received – a £10,000 support package offered by central government via Hastings Borough Council. The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has also suspended its annual affiliation fee, a further saving of £770. 

“It’s too early at this point to forecast whether the £10,000 grant will make up for our lost income,” says club treasurer Pearl Hare – “not just from subscriptions, but also bar profits and court fees during what would normally be a busy period for the club.”

In the meantime Louis Bradbury, director and administrator of the 6-Love coaching team centred at Amherst, admits that they are “taking a hit”. They would normally be running group sessions for juniors several weekday evenings and Saturday mornings each week. The summer term is usually their busiest period of the year, when children new to the sport can join other novices in appropriate groupings.  On the other hand, most of their regular ‘academy’ juniors have wasted little time in returning – 19 out of 22 have turned up for at least a single one-to-one coaching session in the past two and a half weeks, some several.

Leading junior, Hayden Hoxey, aged 14, was up at the club on Friday afternoon hitting with coach Ross Cudmore. He had broken a bone in his foot some weeks before lockdown started in March, so wouldn’t have been able to play much before now anyway. He says he’s pleased to be back on the courts, and hopes it won’t be too long before LTA tournaments resume.

Louis too is still hopeful that 6-Love will be able to run their normal summer club in the July/August holiday period. “With primary schools and nurseries going back on Monday, I believe this will happen – but we’re still awaiting government advice,” he says. 

STOP PRESS: The LTA announced last Sunday afternoon (31st May) that, as from the following day, games of tennis doubles will be sanctioned, whether or not any of the players are members of the same household, plus coaching group sessions with up to six participants. Complex hygienic controls are still required, and partners on the same side of the net advised to observe two-metre social distancing, including a bizarre suggestion that they might “consider agreeing in advance which player will take the shot if a ball travels to the centre of the court”. (Which sports administrator thought that one up? Maybe the same as advised Sports Minister Oliver Dowden last month to approve basketball as a socially distanced sport). 

Amherst and The Green clubs will no doubt adapt their protocols accordingly. On the other hand, as reported in our news section, Hastings Borough Council continues to insist currently on keeping the public courts at Alexandra Park locked and barred. 

Doug Keen
PICTURE: Chloe Keen

Doug, born in Ohio and bred in Michigan, always had a talent for tennis.  He played inter-state college matches across the USA for Kalamazoo, a multiple champion-producing academy under renowned coach George Acker and after graduating, set out to try to make it as a pro. He was technically proficient and competitive, always quick around the court, but didn’t have any ‘big’ shots. He won some, he lost some. He felt a certain emptiness. Then at the age of 24 he became a Christian.

He quotes the seventeenth century French theologian Blaise Pascal:“There is a God-shaped hole in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” Christianity changed the direction of his life.

He studied the Bible at ministry school in New Mexico, financing himself by qualifying as a USPTA tennis coach and working at the Four Hills Country Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico (not quite the high class venue it sounds, he says). He joined Calvary Chapel, which had started in southern California in the 1960s as a revivalist movement, attracting former hippies to the message of Bible-based evangelism. He married his wife Lisa in 1998, and in the following year the couple were invited to visit friends who had started a Calvary Chapel in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Neither had ever been to Britain before  –  but they came, and stayed.

Doug’s plan was to set up a new Calvary Chapel, obeying the Bible injunction to be a ‘fisher of men’. He settled in York, where there was a Next Generation tennis academy, and carried on combining coaching in the sport with evangelical preaching and Bible-teaching. Then at prayer one night 12 years ago he received a message that he felt was “from the Lord” that he should go “south”. Spain? South Africa? The next day he received a letter from a pastor inviting him to come and share in establishing a new Calvary Chapel in Hastings. He, Lisa and daughters (there are now four of them) came here. So Calvary Chapel Hastings was born, first in their front room at home, then at community centres, now with dedicated premises in Duke Road, St Leonards. A generation of budding tennis players at Amherst have been secondary gainers from the move, benefiting from Doug’s continued tennis coaching.

How do Christian faith and a sport like tennis match up?  There’s no doubt what comes first: ‘We believe that knowing God is our highest calling and our relationship to him is our highest priority.’ as the Chapel website expresses it (Matthew 22:37-40,  http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/John 17.3). But Doug says he has no difficulty in retaining his enthusiasm for tennis while pursuing his religion.  He coaches a maximum of 16 hours a week and says he still gets pleasure from it.  “Every day I see amazing mechanisms in the human body.  They are put there by God. And whatever we’re to do, we’re to do for the Lord.”  He quotes from his favourite movie, Chariots of Fire, where Olympic sprinter and future missionary Eric Liddell explains: “I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure”.

I point out to Doug that tennis isn’t just hitting a ball well, it’s about winning – or  losing. You’re trying to put the ball where your opponent can’t return it, and every point you win is a point he or she loses. Is that a Christian attitude? Doug laughs and points out that a proper sportsman, as in Kipling’s poem “If”, meets triumph and disaster ‘and treats those two impostors just the same’.  Actually, he became a better tennis player and won more often after he became a Christian, he says, precisely because he didn’t care so much –  or rather left it to God to determine  –  whether he won or lost. It’s a good way to enjoy tennis, whatever your faith.

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