So I found out something very interesting today.
I first started keeping track of all the football leagues in England back in 2011-12 when I was working for a company that had no concept of man management and insisted that I work on a project where there was no work to be done.
To be fair I was given the option of going back to my old job but if you were paid to sit around waiting for some work to show up what would you do? My choices were to sit and stare into space or do something. I chose to research the Football Pyramid and starting with the Premier League and then the Football League. I established that below the National League there were a whole host of other leagues and back then teams could apply to move from one to another.
Having completed the Level 1 to 5 single division diagram I learned that there were two divisions at Level 6 although those non league officianados insisted on calling it Step 2. Below that there were three regional leagues, the Northern Premier League, the Southern League which covered a huge area, and the Isthmian League centred around East London.
Each of the regional leagues had feeder divisions at Level 8 and at one point I thought "that will do" but I am a perfectionist so I wanted to continue the pyramid to its ultimate conclusion. Little did I know that there are far more leagues than I ever expected and I have now started collecting Scottish, Welsh and Irish leagues after completing most if not all of the county leagues. The F.A. have now decided the County Leagues should sit at Level 11 (Step 7) and have been decimating long standing leagues to achieve that aim.
When I reached Level 9 (Step 5) I decided to work in alphabetical order and the Combined Counties League was first out of the hat. This league had and still has a Premier Division and a Division One.
What intrigued me most this morning was that back in 2011-12 when I started the team sitting at the top of the Combined Counties League Division One was Guernsey. I visited their ground when I was on holiday a few years back.
This season 2019-20 the team at the top of the Combined Counties League Division One is Jersey Bulls following in the Guernsey footsteps. The "Combined" name means that the league is very flexible in terms of who it allows in and it has allowed the channel islands teams to compete albeit that they have to pay for the travel costs of their opponents when they visit the islands.
This level 10 division includes teams such as Fleet Spurs, Bagshot, Cove and Westside as well as the more interestingly named Chessington & Hook United, Eversley & California (there IS a California in Britain), British Airways (I wonder if this is a works team) and FC Deportivo Galicia (maybe with some foreign nationals in the team). According to my table four teams will be promoted to the Premier Division so alongside Jersey Bulls the teams in position at the moment are Farnham Town, Tooting Bec (I am sure there is a station there) and Walton & Hersham. Question: How many sides have merged over the years to become X&Y or A&B?
The Premier Division is currently led by Ascot United followed by Spelthorne Sports. The division includes Sutton Common Rovers, Guildford City and Hanwell Villa who currently sit bottom of the division. It also contains one of my favourite names for a team and that is Badshot Lea. I have a fantasy of watching the team or its opposition playing a forward called Leigh or Lee who would shoot high and wide whereupon we could all shout "Bad Shot Lee". ... Fantasy over.
That concludes the ramble about the Combined Counties League. My knowledge is limited but at least the Channel Islands are now BOTH represented in the professional leagues. This is the first season for Jersey Bulls and they are storming the league so I expect them to go far. The Guernsey side are currently in the Isthmian League South East Division so that must be the minimum target for Jersey as they are the larger of the two islands.
I first started keeping track of all the football leagues in England back in 2011-12 when I was working for a company that had no concept of man management and insisted that I work on a project where there was no work to be done.
To be fair I was given the option of going back to my old job but if you were paid to sit around waiting for some work to show up what would you do? My choices were to sit and stare into space or do something. I chose to research the Football Pyramid and starting with the Premier League and then the Football League. I established that below the National League there were a whole host of other leagues and back then teams could apply to move from one to another.
Having completed the Level 1 to 5 single division diagram I learned that there were two divisions at Level 6 although those non league officianados insisted on calling it Step 2. Below that there were three regional leagues, the Northern Premier League, the Southern League which covered a huge area, and the Isthmian League centred around East London.
Each of the regional leagues had feeder divisions at Level 8 and at one point I thought "that will do" but I am a perfectionist so I wanted to continue the pyramid to its ultimate conclusion. Little did I know that there are far more leagues than I ever expected and I have now started collecting Scottish, Welsh and Irish leagues after completing most if not all of the county leagues. The F.A. have now decided the County Leagues should sit at Level 11 (Step 7) and have been decimating long standing leagues to achieve that aim.
When I reached Level 9 (Step 5) I decided to work in alphabetical order and the Combined Counties League was first out of the hat. This league had and still has a Premier Division and a Division One.
What intrigued me most this morning was that back in 2011-12 when I started the team sitting at the top of the Combined Counties League Division One was Guernsey. I visited their ground when I was on holiday a few years back.
This season 2019-20 the team at the top of the Combined Counties League Division One is Jersey Bulls following in the Guernsey footsteps. The "Combined" name means that the league is very flexible in terms of who it allows in and it has allowed the channel islands teams to compete albeit that they have to pay for the travel costs of their opponents when they visit the islands.
This level 10 division includes teams such as Fleet Spurs, Bagshot, Cove and Westside as well as the more interestingly named Chessington & Hook United, Eversley & California (there IS a California in Britain), British Airways (I wonder if this is a works team) and FC Deportivo Galicia (maybe with some foreign nationals in the team). According to my table four teams will be promoted to the Premier Division so alongside Jersey Bulls the teams in position at the moment are Farnham Town, Tooting Bec (I am sure there is a station there) and Walton & Hersham. Question: How many sides have merged over the years to become X&Y or A&B?
The Premier Division is currently led by Ascot United followed by Spelthorne Sports. The division includes Sutton Common Rovers, Guildford City and Hanwell Villa who currently sit bottom of the division. It also contains one of my favourite names for a team and that is Badshot Lea. I have a fantasy of watching the team or its opposition playing a forward called Leigh or Lee who would shoot high and wide whereupon we could all shout "Bad Shot Lee". ... Fantasy over.
That concludes the ramble about the Combined Counties League. My knowledge is limited but at least the Channel Islands are now BOTH represented in the professional leagues. This is the first season for Jersey Bulls and they are storming the league so I expect them to go far. The Guernsey side are currently in the Isthmian League South East Division so that must be the minimum target for Jersey as they are the larger of the two islands.
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