Gems was formed towards the end of the 1998 season, we had 11 members, 9 of which had known each other for quite a number of years having played together for Epsom and Oxshott, the other 2 joined us from Park Farm. We had some sponsorship from family members of two of our club, hence the name GEMS, as one sponsor has a business in Hatton Gardens.

The first competition we entered was a Tournament held in Bournemouth. We were very competitive and eventually made the final, we played well but the fact we had not played together as a team for very long was exposed by our opposition, but we very proud of our achievement and felt this was a good sign for the future success of the club.

In 1998-1999 season we entered the Surrey and Kingston Leagues, we were placed in Div. 1 in Surrey and Div 6 in Kingston, we were a little disappointed with Div 6, but unfortunately these were the rules for entry in this league. One of our objectives was to encourage each player to become versatile, enabling them to change positions easily, starting down the divisions this certainly gave us the opportunity to practice this. Over the years this ability of the players has become a very important as having only a small squad there have been many occasions when this has been tested to the full.

We worked our way up through the Divisions and on our way to the top Divisions, only lost 1 match in the 2001-2002 season.

When we reached Premier A in Surrey which was the 2001-2002 Season, our aim was to consolidate our position, and make sure we stayed there for the following season. We were thrilled when we won it at our first opportunity, all the years of hard work on the training ground came to fruition, and we patted ourselves on the back and opened the champers. At the end of this season we were to be promoted to Div 1 in Kingston, so we knew 2002-03 season would be even harder as we now had to defend our title of being Surrey League Champions and contest for the same title in the Kingston League.

We had some very competitive matches in this season which is great, again we had to train hard so we were ready to give our best, our coach Joan Chipperfield who had been with us since the start made sure we did not slack and our determination to keep the Surrey Title paid dividends with us keeping the title for a second season and when we completed the double with a win in the Kingston League, we were needless to say very proud of our achievements.

We have also played in the Kingston K.O. cup, winning in each year except last year when we had a small hiccup. Last season we won the Surrey County Tournament which was held at Shirley High, and we have also won the Kingston Rally on a couple of occasions.

Of the original 11 members we still have 7 playing for us and we have been joined by a further 5. We are a very happy bunch of girls who love to play good clean competitive netball, so we felt proud of everything we have achieved on and off the netball courts.

We have continued to be successful over the past years. Looking to the future we decided at the end of last season that we would increase our membership and take the opportunity to play in the inaugural year of the County League - Surrey competition, We have welcomed several new faces this season but still have room to take on a couple of more members.

We increased the numbers of teams we have playing, we now have 1 in the Surrey, 2 in the Kingston Leagues. Our results for the season have seen us finish 2nd and first in our divisions in the Kingston League and 4th in the Surrey League Premier A. Our County team have become Champions, an extremely good result for the club and all members played a part in achieving this marvellous result, the result of which now means that the club go forward to the play-offs for the Regional League.

Planning for the future of the club has meant many changes and it has taken us a while to get to grips with the differences of running a bigger club but the members have taken on board all of these things, and as is normal with Gems, we have worked our way through these together and moved on to achieve great results, long may it continue.

Objectives

Our intentions are to continue to play a high standard of netball, to be competitive and win with good netball skills, to be graceful in defeat, to respect all officials, but most of all to enjoy ourselves, and to help all those around us enjoy the game whether by watching or taking part.

Then of course follows the social life of the netballer…………………………….

The club remains a single squad entity; all the players are highly dedicated and versatile. We are a happy cohesive social unit that shares the same goals and ambitions. We want to continue to be competitive on the court, but also to carry on enjoying our netball and to keep our reputation of being a fair and clean club to play. Of course we hope we can successfully defend our titles again, but we are sure everyone else will be determined to knock us off our perch, so the season will again be very competitive.

We shall again be running our Summer League at Nonsuch School. If you have not played in it before and want more details please contact Joan Chipperfield, details on the Contact Us page.