Local football

[grecIAN Harris]

My eldest made her debut for Crediton u/16 girls today. They won 11-1, she only got four. Greedy mare!!

 

[Jason H]

After a hiatus of a couple of weeks we were finally back in action yesterday against Plym**th in the second of our cup group matches, and we scored with the last kick of the game to force a 1-1 draw to extend our unbeaten run to 2 matches, I *think* (rather tragically!) the first time we've been unbeaten after two matches played in a season...

 

[les.gtfc]

I was involved in local football for many a year. I didn't actually play ever but I was a team secretary for over 25 years until I decided I'd had enough of the hassle and packed it in about 2 years ago.

Not sure what the Sunday League scene is like there but I'm afraid it's dying on it's arse in the Grimsby area now. We used to have 10 Divisions on a Sunday with about 15 teams in each but now were down to 4 Division which only have about 10 teams each. In fact last season 3 teams dropped out of Division One during the season and it finished with only 7 teams (therefore a 12 game season!!)

I don't miss it at all to be fair, standing there 10 minutes before kick-off with only about 8 men there, ringing around to try and get a full team up. We started in Division 10 and managed to get up to Division One. We finished 3rd in Divison One one season and were the only team to beat The Champions that season. We had a great team then and kept the same nucleus of lads for many seasons but as time wore on the lads got fewer and fewer and it was hard to replace them so we ended up withdrawing from the league. Lots of great times were had on Sunday mornings but at times it was a bit of a nightmare sorting everything out.

 

[Banksy]

Been there , done that too les!

 

[grecIAN Harris]

I was involved in local football for many a year. I didn't actually play ever but I was a team secretary for over 25 years until I decided I'd had enough of the hassle and packed it in about 2 years ago.

Not sure what the Sunday League scene is like there but I'm afraid it's dying on it's arse in the Grimsby area now. We used to have 10 Divisions on a Sunday with about 15 teams in each but now were down to 4 Division which only have about 10 teams each. In fact last season 3 teams dropped out of Division One during the season and it finished with only 7 teams (therefore a 12 game season!!)

I don't miss it at all to be fair, standing there 10 minutes before kick-off with only about 8 men there, ringing around to try and get a full team up. We started in Division 10 and managed to get up to Division One. We finished 3rd in Divison One one season and were the only team to beat The Champions that season. We had a great team then and kept the same nucleus of lads for many seasons but as time wore on the lads got fewer and fewer and it was hard to replace them so we ended up withdrawing from the league. Lots of great times were had on Sunday mornings but at times it was a bit of a nightmare sorting everything out.

The Sunday League is dying on it's arse in Exeter. It's half the size it was 20 years ago and probably not even a quarter of the quality it was at the same time. Back then there was six divisions and the top sides in Division 1 had more than a sprinkling of Western League players playing for them (Barley Mow for example, now a Co-oP, had at least half a dozen and maybe more Western League players playing for them) and then money and contracts from Saturday sides started to curtail their involvement and it's been downhill ever since.

 

[Colesman Ballz]

The Sunday League is dying on it's arse in Exeter. It's half the size it was 20 years ago and probably not even a quarter of the quality it was at the same time. Back then there was six divisions and the top sides in Division 1 had more than a sprinkling of Western League players playing for them (Barley Mow for example, now a Co-oP, had at least half a dozen and maybe more Western League players playing for them) and then money and contracts from Saturday sides started to curtail their involvement and it's been downhill ever since.

I think the general demise of pubs, and their teams has been an important factor too !

 

[Jason H]

I think the general demise of pubs, and their teams has been an important factor too !

I don't know about Devon, but up here in London the "proper" game has been dying on its backside for a few years now. The key consideration is that people just don't want to commit essentially a whole day to the proper stuff and tend instead to play midweek short-sided stuff that you can do after work for an hour. As I said earlier in the thread, our league is down to 9 teams now (one of them new) so just running one division when we were running two divisions of around 10+ sides each in recent years.

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

First call off this season (bloody rain)

 

[Colesman Ballz]

First call off this season (bloody rain)

On the bright side, there's always the alternative of FA Cup action at SJP !

 

[CREDYGRECIAN]

On the bright side, there's always the alternative of FA Cup action at SJP !

Indeed I’m looking forward to it , first game I’ve been able to attend this season