2005

After a memorable promotion in 2004, the Falcons made their debut in the Premier League of British Baseball where they were to face big guns like the Cambridge Monarchs, Essex Arrows, Richmond Knights and Oxford Kings among others. The Falcons were not overwhelmed by the better opposition and despite ending up with a losing record of 7 wins and 14 losses never looked out of place in the Premier League.

Losing MVP Shunji Kakutani and Batting Champion, John del Borrello who moved back to Japan and Australia, respectively, was a massive blow for the team, but the team was reinforced with the additions of Kimiyoshi Saionji, Bruce Dullea, Kyle Hunlock, Baek Seunk Kwan “Mac”, Todd Nightingale, Buddy Owen and EJ Zoog.

Most memorable games of the season surely were the four encounters against the eventual champions, Cambridge Monarchs, with their batting lineup made up of one slugger after another and most of all their 90mph “plus” velocity of pitchers Glenn Goodrich and Bob Runyon, the latter having previously pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in the Minor Leagues. The Falcons gave the Monarchs a real scare in all three of the league encounters with some memorable moments including Kyle Hunlock turning a magnificent Triple Play and Jim Denison going 3 for 3 with 3 home runs and when he came up for his fourth and final at bat in the final inning with runners on 2nd and 3rd and Denison representing the go-ahead run, the Monarchs wisely took the bat out of his hands, walking him intentionally. The Falcons lost all three of the league games against Cambridge but they did have their revenge in the UK’s biggest annual baseball event, the London Tournament, where the boys from Hertfordshire caused the upset of the tournament by beating the red hot favourites from Cambridge and relegating them to playing on Croydon’s Field #5 for the rest of the tournament.

2005 was also the year when the organisation created its second team, Hawks, which entered Division 1. This was possible thanks to an incredible amount of newcomers joining the club and wanting to wear the Falcons shirt. Some of the newcomers included Rob Jones, Ross Asquith, Ross Davies, Larry Martillo, Alex Casey, Samer Karouni, Andy Lowe, Jason Sarfo-Annin and of course Jake Kikel’s son Peter who had turned 14 years of age and was eligible to play in official League games. Hawks had an incredible debut year finishing third in their Division with a phenomenal record of 10 wins and 5 losses which meant that they missed out on the promotion play-offs ending up one game back on the Havering Cardinals and three games back on the winners, Cambridge Monarchs2.