Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

[longeared]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Two games into the NCEL season and there hasn't yet been a single draw in the Premier division yet. Not for want of trying mind you, Thackley have scored late winners in both their games. Retford United are the early leaders before the division takes a break for the FA Cup this weekend.

In the 1st division, there was an early candidate for game of the season last night when Hallam won 6-5 at Appleby Frodingham. The winner came in the last minute after Appleby had been 5-2 up early in the second half.

[Kevin S]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Combined Counties League
Eastern Counties League
Essex Senior League
Hellenic League
Midland Alliance
Northern Counties East League
Northern League
North West Counties League
Southern Counties East League (Kent League)
Spartan South Midlands League
Sussex County League
United Counties League
Wessex League
Western League



Just going to leave this here for handy step 5 reference. I haven't memorised all 14 Leagues yet.

As well as noticing that two of these leagues have three divisions (SSML, Sussex) there are some with only one, such as Essex Senior or Southern Counties East (Kent) before the county and combination leagues start to kick in.

Not that this bothers me - I just like to know these things.

[Kevin S]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

NCEL sounds exciting already longeared! The ECL has three teams on six points, with the favourites, Gorleston, one of them (top with a +6 GD). This will no doubt please Gambrinus if he's around.

It was Ely v Newmarket on Tuesday, with the newly-promoted Jockeys coming away with a 3-1 win. Ely are still to get off the mark. Hopefully "we" will get a home win in the cup to get things moving.

In Div.1, plucky Cornard United got a 2-2 draw at Whitton United on Tuesday night. Off the mark already!

In the A1122 derby (as it's probably not known) between Swaffham Town and Downham Town, the host ran out 7-0 winners in front of 114, which sounds pretty good for step 6 in midweek.

[Furtho]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

kevchenko wrote: Just going to leave this here for handy step 5 reference. I haven't memorised all 14 Leagues yet.

As well as noticing that two of these leagues have three divisions (SSML, Sussex) there are some with only one, such as Essex Senior or Southern Counties East (Kent) before the county and combination leagues start to kick in.

Not that this bothers me - I just like to know these things.

@Kevchenko - Good idea to have the map. I have a feeling it may come in handy. This sort of thing does bother me, though. I'm one of* those mad outliers who thinks the whole pyramid system should be redrawn along county lines and so gets mightily riled seeing Lincolnshire split into two, say.

Love that Newmarket are known as the Jockeys. I think there's an interesting sub-thread to be had on the topic of nicknames.

@slackster, as a former resident of the remote eastern parts of the county it will be good to know more about the bizarrely renamed Kent League (I can't in all conscience call it the Southern Counties East League, for heaven's sake). I enjoyed watching clips of Tunbridge Wells against Shildon in the FA Vase semi-final.

@Longeared, I don't know much (anything) about the NCEL so all contributions to this thread are gratefully received.

@delicatemoth, optimistic they may have been preseason but sad to report that Buckingham Town have amassed a single point from their two games so far. The Robins lost 2-0 to promoted side Peterborough Sports last weekend and drew 2-2 with old boys' team ON Chenecks today.

Local update from Saturday. Remember last weekend Stony Stratford Town kicked off their SSML Division 1 season by being crushed 10-0 by Sun Postal Sports? In midweek they made a marked improvement, losing only 5-1 in a North Bucks derby with Winslow United. Today, though, Stony slipped back into old habits and were doinked 10-1 at Welwyn Garden City. It's going to be a long season, etc. etc.

*I accept that there might in fact just be the one person who thinks this

[mirko bolesan]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Furtho wrote:
Love that Newmarket are known as the Jockeys. I think there's an interesting sub-thread to be had on the topic of nicknames.

When I lived in Ipswich I watched quite a bit of "Eastern Counties" football and I travelled to Newmarket. The most notable thing about the game was that it was so foggy that if you stood behind the goal you couldn't even make out the posts of the other end's goal. I think the ref was keen to get the game completed.

Newmarket's probably interesting to someone "like you " due to it's odd location. It's actually in Suffolk:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Suffolk_outline_map_with_UK.png

From wikipedia:
The area of Suffolk containing Newmarket is nearly an exclave, with only a narrow strip of territory linking it to the rest of the county. Historically the town was split with one parish - St Mary - in Suffolk, and the other - All Saints - in Cambridgeshire. The Local Government Act 1888 made the entirety of Newmarket urban sanitary district part of the administrative county of West Suffolk.

The 1972 Local Government Bill as originally proposed would have transferred the town (and Haverhill) to Cambridgeshire. The Local Government Commission for England had suggested in the 1960s that the border around Newmarket also be altered, in West Suffolk's favour. Newmarket Urban District Council supported the move to Cambridgeshire, but ultimately the government decided to withdraw this proposal and keep the existing boundary, despite intense lobbying from the UDC.

[Sits]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Ibn Pickthall wrote:

This is one of the Bedfont shots I was thinking of.

This was the sort of thing which drove my family, including one-year-old yours truly, to move from the family home in Bedfont in 1965. Family legend is that not long before that the Transport Minister spent a night as our guest so he could experience The Heathrow Effect first hand.

[Sits]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Inspired by this thread i am going to have a look on the web at the local football scene. But like Esher round here though - egg-chasing country.

[Auntie Beryl]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Is there an FA Cup thread yet? If not, I'll leave this here: Berkhamsted wiggled past AFC Dunstable yesterday, 2-1. Late saved penalty.

[Furtho]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

@Sits With Remote - excellent, it would be great to broaden the horizons of the thread beyond Britain. Anything on local football in Sydney will be very welcome.

@Mirko Bolesan - someone like me, eh? Hmmmm. Well, no, to be fair that is pretty interesting. I would have sworn Newmarket was in Cambridgeshire. Love all that stuff about the changing of borders, etc.

To kick off the sub-thread about the nicknames of clubs playing local football, here's something about AFC Kempston Rovers, a team from Bedfordshire who play in the UCL Premier Division alongside my neighbourhood giants Newport Pagnell Town. I'll throw in equivalent bits and pieces about other clubs when the mood takes me.

"Sir William Long planted an orchard consisting of walnut trees at the beginning of the 19th century, in Cemetery Road, Kempston... Sir William planted a total of 365 walnut trees and it was said to be the largest walnut orchard in England. [AFC Kempston Rovers] adopted the nickname The Walnut Boys because their original ground was on the site of the former orchard." Text from the Kempston Local History Society website, here.

[Furtho]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

The very last thing I want to do is make you all feel envious or somehow disappointed at your places in the world, but it would be against the spirit of this thread if I didn't draw attention to the fact that we have an absolute bloody hell of a footballing weekend ahead of us here in North Bucks. Ten of our UCL and SSML sides are in action, eight of them are at home and there are even two derby matches into the bargain. I know! That dripping noise you can hear is the watering of the mouths of players, supporters and groundhoppers alike.

The derbies are both in Division 2 of the SSML. Old Bradwell United have lost both their admittedly tricky games so far and tomorrow the Kingfishers make the short jaunt out into the country to play Mursley United. Tempting though that fixture may be I nevertheless think I'll be heading instead to newcomers Willen for their MK Classico against New Bradwell St Peter. On the opening day of the season Willen managed to pull in one of the biggest crowds in the whole league - fully 85 - so this one has the makings of an exciting clash between the up and coming home side and the visitors, well established on the local scene but down on their luck after that catastrophic winless 2012/13 campaign.

[delicatemoth]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

I don't suppose Willen are nicknamed the Lakers, are they?

[Kevin S]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Gorleston go one point clear at the top of the ECL Premier after a pulsating 4-4 draw at Felixstowe & Walton United. It was the first points dropped by The Greens so far this season, and they are now on 10pts from 4. Second placed Norwich United (The Planters) won 3-1 away at Wivenhoe Town to maintain their 100% record (9 from 3).

The top two meet at Plantation Park, Blofield, near Norwich on Tuesday evening. If Gorleston can take an away win then the favourites will already look in a strong position to win their fifth ECL title and their first since 1980-81.

Ely got a good 1-0 away win at CRC last midweek but went down 4-1 at home to Brantham Athletic today, in front of just 71. Only Diss Town broke three figures today in the poor weather.

Did anyone hear that Swaffham were named Robbie Savage's team of the week, by the way? It was for their FA Cup win over UCL Premier side Wisbech. Swaffham are challenging at the top of Div.1, along with Braintree Town Res, Whitton United and Halstead Town. Something seems to be up with Downham Town (from Downham Market, Norfolk). Four away games and four defeats and the next two scheduled away as well. Then a run of mostly home games. Presumably problems with the ground/pitch, then.

[longeared]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Another magnificently mad game in the NCEL Premier on Saturday as Heanor Town won 9-4 at Nostell MW. Three players scored hat-tricks. The result leaves Nostell bottom of the league with no points.

Three teams have 100% records going into this afternoon's matches, Retford United, Albion Sports and Thackley.

In the first division, Eccleshill United top the division, but no-one has a 100% record now thanks to defeats for Shaw Lane and Teversal.

[Furtho]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Talking of Wisbech, kevchenko, their good start to life in the UCL Premier Division came to a crunching halt on Saturday as they were beaten 4-0 at home by Huntingdon Town (there's actually a highlights clip here).

What with that and Ely's FA Cup defeat to a struggling Sleaford in fact some UCL fans are taking the opportunity to be rather sniffy about the quality of the ECL. I'm staying well out of that nonsense, of course, although I will report that Woodford United's season has commenced rather belatedly with 7-0 and 6-0 defeats.

My game on Saturday can't quite compete with longeared's NCEL 4-9 match for eyepopping bonkersness but even so there were a few talking points to come out of the Willen - New Bradwell St Peter derby. Both sides had lost their first two matches of the season and after a few minutes of play New Bradwell realised that Willen were not exactly much of an attacking threat -- and furthermore that the defence wasn't much to write home about either.

A large proportion of the final 75 minutes of the game consisted of NBSP trying to time runs and dinked passes through the Willen back line and into the 35 yards of space behind it. They ballsed it up and were caught offside no more than a dozen or fifteen times but even so the match finished Willen 1-7 New Bradwell St Peter. Not a bad way to pick up your first league win for over 16 months.

As well as the game I enjoyed an amiable chat with the members of the New Bradwell St Peter committee, the chairman of which arrived by bicycle at half time. Among other things I learned that they have no idea of the names of any of their own players, or where any of them have previously played; how much it costs per year to run a club at that level (Step 7); and that without the licensed clubhouse and its volunteer staff there would be no football (or indeed cricket) club.

I also gleaned that another bloke watching the game, emphatically not connected with either New Bradwell St Peter or Willen, was a racist moron, based on his remarks about some other SSML club being "full of blacks, but a bloody good side".

[longeared]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Albion Sports and Thackley kept their 100% records going in the NCEL this afternoon. Retford United failed to do so after throwing away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Athersley Rec. Sounded quite a game as besides this turnaround Retford missed a penalty, had a man sent off and had a goal which looked to be over the line not awarded (Talking point alert!)

Nostell MW lost again and are the only club in the division without a point.

Notable results of the day were Barton Town Old Boys beating Winterton Rangers 8-0 and, in the 1st division, Shirebrook Town's impressive start to the season continuing with a 6-0 win at Louth Town.

[Furtho]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

longeared, picking up ever so deftly on your talking point, do refs in the NCEL come in for a slating from players and other people involved in the league? Call me naive but I must admit I'm a bit surprised quite how vociferous criticism of officials often is, especially in the SSML. My opinion -- that the league's referees are generally about as good at their job as the league's players are at theirs -- is one I'd normally choose to keep to myself.

[slackster]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

SCEFL update, after I popped over the local 'Den to see Tun Wells bash hapless local rivals Sevenoaks Town 5-2, and maintain the top spot.

Man, there's nothing like a spot of non-league when you're sitting on a sunny terrace and sipping a beer, whilst the local wags (comedian variety) are laying into the opposition and officials.

Tun Wells have found a few spare scaffolding poles and boards lying about somewhere to erect the most amateurish new 'stand' I've seen for a while, but more importantly they have extended the bar and upped the staffing thereof.

Good on them for supporting the local microbrews too: yesterday it was a Tonbridge Brewery IPA offering. It , and the cokes & cooking lager too, was as popular with the pesky wasps as the punters - we were plagued with the blighters in the sunshine.

Elsewhere in SCEFL Ashford United have a 100% record from 4, Erith Town are off to their typical flyer, and poor old Fisher - who should be the best team in Bermondsey if they can ever return to the derelict Surrey Docks Stadium - are ominously bottom after 5 defeats on the bounce.

[Kevin S]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Furtho wrote: Talking of Wisbech, kevchenko, their good start to life in the UCL Premier Division came to a crunching halt on Saturday as they were beaten 4-0 at home by Huntingdon Town (there's actually a highlights clip here).

What with that and Ely's FA Cup defeat to a struggling Sleaford in fact some UCL fans are taking the opportunity to be rather sniffy about the quality of the ECL. I'm staying well out of that nonsense, of course, although I will report that Woodford United's season has commenced rather belatedly with 7-0 and 6-0 defeats.

My two penn'orth is that they might have a point but they perhaps have arrived at their conclusion from wrong working.

Let's have a look at ECL Champions from this century.

2000: Histon. As you know, Histon moved all the way up to the Conference National and are still up there in the Skrill North.

2001-2005 (five consecutive titles): AFC Sudbury. Eventually applied successfully to the Isthmian D1N and they are still there.

2006 and 2009: Lowestoft Town. Also went up to the Isthmian D1N, promoted from there, and have reached the Isthmian Premier playoff final three years running.

2007 and 2012: Wroxham. Took promotion to the Isthmian D1N, finishing 14th.

2008: Soham Town Rangers. Promoted to Isthmian D1N and still there, 7th last season.

2010: Needham Market. Also still in the Isthmian D1N. Last season, 16th.

2011: Leiston. Went straight through the Isthmian D1N and finished 12th in the Premier last season.

2013: Dereham Town. Making their bow in the Isthmian D1N. 11th after six games.

It's not necessarily that the teams in the east are worse per se but that the pyramid has meant our best teams have moved on or up, and we haven't been able to replace them. It's worth noting that these teams, once up, have tended to survive/thrive at the higher level of competition. Eight up, none down.

I suppose this possibly leads to a downwards spiral in the ECL. So since Ely, Newmarket, Diss and the rest are no longer competing with these good sides they will eventually suffer as a result. As I mentioned earlier, many 'gaps' caused by promotions have had to be filled by reserve teams from the Isthmian sides.

Wisbech I think must have noticed this. They were one of the best ECL sides and presumably figured that the UCL has the better strength in depth. So that makes at least nine good sides gone.

As for what can be done, I'm not sure.

ED - just checking some records, the ECL also lost Maldon & Tiptree (runners up 2004), who went into the Southern League and are now also in Isthmian D1N.

[Kevin S]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Off the top of my head, actually, there might be mileage in disbanding the ECL completely. Put the Essex teams and the east Suffolk and Norfolk teams into an expanded/renamed Essex league (teal on the map). Put the Cambs teams and the west Suffolk and Norfolk teams into the UCL (brown).

It would make the area of these two leagues pretty big, in terms of travel required, though. But no bigger than the NL or NCEL.

Some of the smaller teams would probably decline this and drop down to the county/combination leagues though. Perhaps there would be scope to retain an ECL at Level 10, with possible promotion to Essex or UCL Premier.

ED - I'd really prefer to keep Norfolk and Suffolk whole, though. These two counties are really the 'proper' East Anglia. Cambridgeshire has a real mixed feel - the London/Herts/Essex feel of the City and the south, the midlandsy feel of the Peterborough/Hunts area and the Fenniness of the north and east. Essex also has a split personality, with Constable Country being very Suffolky but then the middle and south being very Londony. It's a bit of a muddle, one which losing half of the top flight (without anyone decent coming up or down) hasn't helped.

[Duncan Gardner]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Morning all. The Wisbech reference reminds me to big up Gornal Athletic's mini-revival. The Midlands Alliance Strugglers shrugged off last week's FA Cup hangover to beat Loughborough Uni 2-1.

[Furtho]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

kevchenko wrote: My two penn'orth is that they might have a point but they perhaps have arrived at their conclusion from wrong working.

Another factor could be that a fair proportion of UCL people are rather bullish about the existence of their league, as it was one of the ones that looked as if it might be done away with in the proposed restructuring a couple of years ago. So there's a subtext of, "They wanted to do away with the UCL but in fact it's ace, as this result achieved by one of its member clubs clearly demonstrates" to a lot of this sort of thing.

Just having a quick browse at the spreadsheet containing my counties-based pyramid and over in ECL land I'm looking at a step 5 division covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambs, while Essex is in with Beds and Herts. Point taken about the mixed nature of Cambs, though.

What's Gorleston like as a place? I'm not sure I'd actually heard of it before reading about the football club on this thread. I've never heard of any of the places longeared talks about either.

slackster, do Ashford United bear any relationship to the Ashford Town club that used to be out in the middle of nowhere? And how longstanding are Sevenoaks Town? I always used to think that there was no club in Sevenoaks at all, and that it must have been just about the biggest distinct town in the country not to have a team named after it (Broadstairs was another example of that sort of thing in Kent).

[mirko bolesan]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

An afternoon to forget for Bracknell Town who lost 5-0 in the A329 derby to Ascot United in front of a "bumper crowd" of 222. The Yellamen scored all five goals in the first half and were rarely troubled.

Bracknell were missing their four best players and Ascot pay a lot of their players so the scoreline was perhaps unsurprising. Ascot have some very good players at their club (including Phillipines international fullback Rob Gier).

There appears to be a huge gulf in class between the top sides in the division like Reading Town, Ascot, Binfield, Wantage, Ardley and the rest.

Late on in the game an Ascot player decided to go in two footed on a Bracknell midfielder. The resultant melee saw two players shown the red card. Totally needless when the game was already won.

Unfortunately for Ascot they were expelled from the FA Cup this week for fielding an illegible player. The marvelously named Tadley Calleva (Calleva coming from the name of a Roman town in the area) take their place and travel to Chalfont St. Peter in the next round (Saturday).

[Kevin S]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Furtho wrote:

My two penn'orth is that they might have a point but they perhaps have arrived at their conclusion from wrong working.

Just having a quick browse at the spreadsheet containing my counties-based pyramid and over in ECL land I'm looking at a step 5 division covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambs, while Essex is in with Beds and Herts. Point taken about the mixed nature of Cambs, though.

That would be good and fits well with the county/combination leagues below. The reason I would tend to put Essex rather than Cambs with Norfolk and Suffolk would be trying to establish that these feed into Ryman 1N. But then of course Soham are Cambs and are in the Ryman, whereas Histon (who are a smidgen south of Soham) are in Conference North. Oh, and of course Cambridge City are in the Southern League. Feeding into step 4/3 seems to be a problem for the East - the teams can go any of three ways.

What's Gorleston like as a place? I'm not sure I'd actually heard of it before reading about the football club on this thread.

It's just on the south side of the river Yare's mouth, with Great Yarmouth being on the north side. Historically, a fishing town (herring) - now a seaside resort.

It's one of the local clubs favoured by former Norwich players, such as Robert Fleck and World Cup winner Martin Peters.

[slackster]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Furtho wrote: do Ashford United bear any relationship to the Ashford Town club that used to be out in the middle of nowhere? And how longstanding are Sevenoaks Town? I always used to think that there was no club in Sevenoaks at all, and that it must have been just about the biggest distinct town in the country not to have a team named after it (Broadstairs was another example of that sort of thing in Kent).

The former are a continuation, after Ashford Town went skint a couple of years back.

7Oaks Town have been around for donkey's years, but only popped their head above the current step 5 level a decade ago. The ground is in Greatness Park on the northern edge of the town. Their record has been pretty pony since, as is their support, and they've only avoided relegation because the step 6 clubs didn't want to move up.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Local Football, aka the Other Non-Leagues Thread

Non League Day

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Thought this is the best home for this.