STREATHAM-CROYDON have locked horns with their county union for the second time this season after their relegation to the bottom tier of Surrey rugby was confirmed.

The Thornton Heath-based club have accused the Surrey Rugby Football Union of "randomly deducting points for the pettiest offences" after almost half of their points total over the course of the season was stripped away for fielding ineligible players.

The six-point deduction led to Streatham-Croydon finishing second from bottom in Surrey Division Three condemning them to life in Surrey Four next season.

But the Frant Road outfit have been riled further after a new addition to the reorganised Surrey leagues, Old Tonbridgians, were told they would slot into Division Three next season.

The county RFU believe Tonbridgians – who have applied to join the Surrey Leagues after beginning a groundshare with Dorking Rugby Club – will be too strong for the teams in the bottom tier and have placed them in the division above instead.

But furious Streatham-Croydon argue they will be even tougher opponents for the Surrey Four teams, having accrued enough points to finish fourth in Division Three – not taking into account the deductions.

Streatham's honorary secretary Owen Jones said Tonbridgians' reputation was founded on big wins over reserve teams in the Mid Kent & East Sussex Division B, and slammed Surrey RFU's decision to put them into Surrey Three as lacking "logic and common sense".

"This decision shows a total lack of coherent thinking from Surrey," he said.

"To place a side in Surrey Three on the basis of results against the third, fourth and fifth teams from the Kent leagues really defies belief.

"When Surrey asked the clubs in the Surrey leagues to vote on this matter, they did so by providing them with evidence that was a mixture of guesswork and conjecture.

"We are beginning to get used to the idea that we will be in Surrey Four next season. With the new coaching structure we have in place, and with very few players likely to leave over the summer, we would have been in good shape to challenge for promotion to Surrey Two.

"I just hope that this decision Surrey have made on the basis of avoiding mismatches in Surrey Four does not come back to haunt them."

Surrey reorganised their divisions at the end of this season to accommodate Kingston, who were relegated from London Three South West, and Tonbridgians. The reshuffle means an extra team in Division One and Division Four and reprieves Croydon and Old Caterhamians – third from bottom in Divisions One and Two – from relegation.

Tony Price, chairman of the Surrey Competitions Committee, stressed Streatham-Croydon would have gone down wherever Tonbridgians entered the structure and said the decision - voted on by the other Surrey clubs - was taken on safety grounds.

"If we kept 10 clubs in each Surrey league, we would have to relegate three from each of Surrey One, Two and Three – including Streatham-Croydon – and enter Old Tonbridgians into Surrey Four," he said. "There is concern that Old Tonbridgians will be far too strong for the weaker sides in Surrey Four, which is deleterious to those clubs' health and safety, and will be good enough to at least challenge for promotion from Surrey Three."

Price also stood by Surrey's decision to strip six points away from Streatham-Croydon, four for playing Aaron Brown and two for fielding Andrew Daniels, neither of whom were registered properly at the time of their appearances.

The punishment for fielding Brown was implemented in January but Streatham-Croydon say the other two-point penalty - which made no difference to their league position - has only appeared since the end of the season and claim they have still not been given a reason for it.

Surrey RFU say that lesser deduction was for playing Daniels while unregistered and confirmed it was applied in January, although due to "an error", it was not reflected in the published league table.

Price added: "We did everything we could to help Streatham-Croydon but ultimately we have to apply penalties for playing unregistered players when that happens contrary to regulations as it is the only way of being fair to all clubs."

Streatham-Croydon have indicated they will appeal against the decision to put Old Tonbridgians in Surrey Three.